Psyop: (l-r) Marco Spier, Marie Hyon, Justin Booth-Clibborn, Eben Mears, Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick

Most products in life come with a set of instructions. But if you're the creative type, the first thing you'll probably do is throw them out. That's more or less been the mantra of multidisciplinary directing collective Psyop. This month Psyop turns ten, and in that time it's growth has been driven both by advances in technology and by how its designers/directors work to change technology.

"We work with technology but not in the way it was meant to be used," explains founder/CD Todd Mueller. "We were always using it in creative ways that the authors of it didn't intend, and that's what really got us excited about doing our own thing. In the early days, we were hacking technology."

Some of these early hacks included using mocap to make animated graphics and breaking 3D out of its functional modeling confines and applying it to more design-conscious work. Since then, Psyop has been responsible for memorable and creatively inventive work, including MTV HD "Crow", Coca-Cola "Happiness Factory" and Esquire's augmented reality cover with The Barbarian Group.

In 2008, the New York-based studio expanded by opening an office in Los Angeles and in '09 signed with Smuggler for worldwide representation. As the collective continues to push forward, Boards asked founders/CDs Mueller, Eben Mears, Marco Spier, Marie Hyon, Kylie Matulick, CEO Justin Booth-Clibborn and newest partner Laurent Ledru, to take a step back and reminisce on its beginnings.

How did Psyop get its start?

Eben Mears: Most of us worked for MTV. That was a time when 3D boxes cost an arm and a leg, so nobody had any. This was version one of all those packages - Softimage, After Effects. We met Todd who was MTV's promos producer. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship making cool graphics for on-air purposes. After that, the price of computers dropped rapidly.

Marco Spier: Softimage was bought by Microsoft and Microsoft wanted to bring those high-end 3D software to PC. They were really successful with that and it trickled down from there where all the other applications became accessible on PCs. All of a sudden, for very small money, we could have all of those tools ourselves.

Eben: It was about creative content without the pressures of large corporate backing. So we went running from corporate headquarters and started a shop in a bar on 11th street that we all used to hang out in inside the East Village. We put a bunch of computers in there and dived in. We ended up with a couple of big projects. That's how we met Kylie - she brought in a job from AT&T. That was the beginning of us doing commercials. We were one of the first people out there who was literally a production company, but who were also able to design and direct. It didn't exist when we started, but we made it possible for companies like ours to be directors.

Marie Hyon: I'd like to add that being a designer and art director back then I was just so frustrated that we didn't have the proper equipment and talent in-house [at MTV]. We always used to have to go out of house and these big post houses would clock you in and say, "Ok you have a Flame session from nine to four, cram everything you can into it and try to design in motion in these suites." You couldn't really book the talent that you needed and you needed more time to finish your work. The turnaround time was super fast. It was an interesting problem to solve, and great practice for us.

You were founded on an atmosphere of experimentation. Can you talk about some of the early instances where you used technology in an experimental way?

Eben: What people really used 3D for back then was biological modeling and modeling the universe - space stuff. So we took 3D and thought, "Well how do we make cool graphics out of 3D?" It wasn't just about character stuff for us back then, it was about cool graphics and how things would look. So we started integrating those things into compositing applications and because we all came from a design background we were taking tools that generally weren't used for that and turning them into fun things for graphics, design and animation.

Todd Mueller: One of the things that we've always enjoyed doing is essentially when we were working with designs, we'd always create a still image that we all loved and pixel fuck it until we were thrilled with the image. Then we'd bring in our key animators and technical people and be like, "Ok, so what's the coolest way we could make this move?" Oftentimes when you're designing for a lot of people, while you're making it you're having to figure out how the hell you can do it. For me it's always been exceedingly fun and challenging to come up with an image or come up with an idea that's tricky to do and/or come up with an idea and then figure out what's the most interesting way to make it move. Then you use the animation as a really explorative tool as opposed to just using it to go from A to B.

How have you seen the industry change in the ten years since Psyop's opening and in what ways has the studio had to adapt?

Marie: Back then we were pitching against certain types of companies. But over the last five years, I feel like we've become a powerhouse directing team - a directing production company. It was shocking when I found the roster that we've been pitching against. These are pretty high-end directors and that's something that was quite shocking the first few times. But now its just about amping up and trying to beat them each time we pitch. That was the biggest sort of change that I felt over the past 10 years.

Eben: We're multi-faceted and we bring all of this to the table so that all of a sudden the game changes in the middle and it's like: we're not just a production company or a design company, we're directors and we're one of the first people to do that.

Justin Booth-Clibborn: Arguably we changed the game. We went from being perceived as a motion graphics house to competing against a-list directors.

Any parting words?

Kylie Matulick: Work hard and enjoy what you do. I think that's what's made us work well as a collaborative team is that we all had that fundamental belief that you've got to enjoy what you do firstly and just work your ass of. In that respect I think we've made a really great team because we've all put our heart and soul into it.

Revisit Psyop's work over the years in the screening room.

www.psyop.tv