The Virtual Creative World of Reed + Rader
Updated: May 24, 2021
Meet the talented minds behind the creative agency Reed + Rader. Pamela Reed and Matthew Rader from Ohio and Pennsylvania combined their talents to create the agency back in the 2000s. Focusing on directing films, gifs and virtual reality experiences, their work is often set in virtual worlds that are colorful, wild and lets viewers escape to magical worlds. Mom and Dad to 5 cats, basketball fans, farmers on the weekend, they both reside in Brooklyn, NY.
WHAT’S THE PROCESS FOR COMING UP WITH IDEAS WHEN YOU WORK WITH BRANDS?
We’ve been lucky enough to build our brand based on our style so usually when a brand comes to us they are looking for us to put Reed + Rader spin on it. We work hand in hand with clients to figure out how their next campaign can fit into our world. More specifically, after we discuss the brief with a client, we sit just the two of us, and brainstorm for hours. Lots of bad drawings on the board, googling and watching videos. We’ve learned that time is the best team member when it comes to ideas, sometimes we’ll have the big idea in 30 minutes, sometimes 6 hours, sometimes we’ll need to come back the next day.
HOW DOES TECHNOLOGY AFFECT YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY?
Technology plays a big role in our work and it continues to push us. We started doing very traditional large format photography and nowadays we’re doing completely 3D projects that use motion capture and end up as virtual reality. We’ve followed our hearts on what we like and where we think photography is headed.
HOW DOES SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECT YOU AND YOUR ART?
It’s pretty much expected that you take into consideration social media as an artist working in web/film. When working on a job, we’ll be thinking about how it will play out on Instagram, Tumblr and user interaction. We don’t necessarily think likes = success, but they are usually very important to clients.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?
Right now is the calm before the storm. Gearing up for multiple projects in pre-production. On the personal front, we’re working on a VR project called Cat Showdown which is a look into the sinister underbelly world of cats vs mice.
HOW’D YOU GUYS GET INTO GIFS?
We were doing still photography until 2007 and were really bored with it. We decided to stop taking pictures and move to gifs. By 2008 we were only creating gifs and films. It made sense to us that gifs were created for the web, and the internet was our audience so we should be creating work for that crowd. It might seem silly now to think gifs were a hard pitch, but in 2007 (and years after that) clients/magazines were still not sold on the gif format.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR YOUR WORK?
We’re always working on what’s next. We are in love with technology so we’re constantly dabbling with secret hardware, software and seeing how it can relate to our work. We are extremely excited for virtual reality, on a personal and professional level.
DO YOUR PARENTS LIKE YOUR WORK?
Our parents are supportive but honestly they have no idea what the hell we’re doing