…make all of your projects a little more complex than the previous one. Always try to make new things that make you grow beyond your current capabilities.

Please give us a brief bio about yourself:

Tilt Design Studio is Marc Antosch, Ralph Heinsohn, Felix Schultze and Guido von Marientreu, born in Berlin, Lubeck and Hamburg.

Marc is responsible for design, same with Ralph who also does the 3D and motion graphics part. Felix and Guido do all the coding and programming.

We met each other at Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts in Kiel (Germany) back in 1999. Being from different semesters and having different special interests varying from coding, illustration, typography, motion design and 3d, we decided to team up and founded Tilt Design Studio in the beginning of 2006.

Please list 3 of your favourite sites:

Most recently:

http://www.gettheglass.com/

Great amusement! You really can feel the love for the details.

http://www.checklandkindleysides.com/

Beautifully executed!

http://www.hm.com/

Great corporate website! They use nearly every up-to-date Flash technique – all built-in into one website.

What do you regard as being your biggest achievement?

Setting up our own studio, keeping it running for nearly two years now and still like to see eachother’s faces every morning. Getting a lot of recognition for our work and being invited to make interviews like this one.

In one sentence: having the possibility to do what we really like!

What projects do you have in the pipeline?

Most of all its website redesigns (as you possibly can figure) and also some identities for a variety of clients, ranking from fashion to photography. Plus we are in the conception of a music video for Steve Bug, label chef of Poker Flat Recordings.

Who do you rate being the top 3 design companies?

Universal Everything,

Non-Format,

Saturday

Everyone of them, because of their own remarkable style, which constantly changes without loosing its high value of recognition.

And (although you didn’t ask) our top 3 graphic designers / illustrators of the moment:

Alex Trouchut

Mario Hugo

Paul Snowden

What effect on traffic do your new designs have?

Hard to answer without losing ourselves in details. Let’s say it like this: Of course every design we do has a positive effect on the client’s traffic or recognition, but in our opinion that’s understood, since we are educated professionals and get paid for it.

Who is your target audience?

Everyone who has a love for details and appreciates it if someone has the will to push some borders.

Have you written any books, if not do you plan to?

Not necessarily books, but we have plans for similar, self-initiated projects. Other than that we are working on a book in cooperation with the photographer Thomas Rusch.

What is the toughest thing you ever did with flash? How long did you spend on it? Is it still online?

G: There were two things that really did cost me a lot of sleepless nights. The first one was the website for Thomas Rusch. The plan was to keep it as small as possible (even in times of high bandwidth connections) and of course have it fully dynamic.

The second thing was the shirt-configurator for Atelier 99, because it should be able to visualize any shirt-configuration to be made. A classic example for not knowing in advance how much work this would cause in the end.

Do you think Flash is here to stay?

Ask us again in about ten years…

What are your views on design / graphic school. Do you think someone can get into the field without educational experience in a school environment?

Of course. Take guys like David Carson or more recently Nik Ainley for example, who created their own style without having been educated as designers.

But in our opinion a good education is a must if you will succeed on the long term. Design is more than just style. A certain style is mostly part of a trend and trends are constantly changing...

How have you learned so many Flash / design skills and techniques and can you offer any advice for newbies?

Believe it or not, we have this question in our mailbox every second day… :)

Honestly: read the forums, make all of your projects a little more complex than the previous one. Always try to make new things that make you grow beyond your current capabilities.

What is the most expensive thing you have bought in the last week?

M: My new YOD vinyl toy. :)

G: A LEGO “Exoforce” kit for my 5 year old son.

F: A James Jarvis 'King Ken’ and a Duncan Jago edition print.

Any parting shots or pearls of wisdom?

Can I have fries with that? :)

It’s been a privilege, thanks very much.

It was our pleasure! Thanks for asking.

Tilt Design Studio