2022. A year unlike any other.
The last 12 months of our Perception journey have been filled with creativity, changes and challenges. As we celebrate 21 years of Perception and close out the year, we wanted to take some time to reflect on the events of 2022 and commemorate our evolution.
2022 started quite differently than 2021 did. For most of 2021, our team was operating fully remotely all over the tri-state area, with some of our team members living across the country and even in different countries. All of our conversations were over Zoom and through email. Things weren’t personal, and that wasn’t helping our creative process.
However, in 2022, our team was back in action in person, occupying an expanded new studio in New Jersey and back to brainstorming with each other face to face. Our creative power was igniting the studio, lighting it up with the same energy we had manifested in our previous studios. We were putting all of our passion into so many new projects, along with continuing several long term engagements with automotive and technology clients from 2021 and years prior. There was so much to look forward to and there was so much to do.
So much.
We came into 2022 very busy, which gave us a nice thrust into the year. But, we had more work than we had people, which was a good problem to have. Our greatest challenge was finding specialized talent and great people to join, support and amplify our team. Luckily, one of our team members was ready to move into the open role of Chief Creative Director and become the leader of our creative team.
Our Creative Director, Doug Appleton, stepped into the role of Chief Creative Director, bringing his 12 years of experience within Perception with him. He was packed with ideas and energy, bringing a plethora of film and technology knowledge with him to strengthen our presence in the film industry.
With Doug moving into the Chief Creative Director role, we now needed someone to take over as our Creative Director. We began our search, and found that the best fit for this position was someone who had been an integral part of Perception family for years.
To fill Doug’s original spot as Creative Director, our longtime creative partner, Greg Herman, came on board. Greg was someone we looked to for years for inspiration and insights. Over the years, Greg’s contributions were always filled with a blazing passion that sparked new and exciting developments. Together, Doug and Greg formed a duo that elevated Perception.
The evolution of our team allowed for new opportunities to bring some fresh ideas, bright visions, and chances to take Perception to a whole new level and practice a new way of thinking. We were ecstatic to find out that we were right.
Our team has been pursuing opportunities and working with programs that we never envisioned would be possible a few years ago. We have taken a deep dive into working with Unreal Engine with Greg at the helm. Our creative team was ecstatic about strengthening their abilities and expanding their skillsets even further. Whether they were working on automotive projects or film work, our creative team approached everything with excitement and a desire to create and inspire.
Beyond the ring of creatives, our production team was deepening even further. Our production team gained muscle and support with new producers and production coordinators to balance the workload and improve our efficiency.
Of course, throughout the year, we faced more curveballs, such as navigating a changing economy and adjusting to a hybrid style of working both remotely and in the studio. But the challenges we faced only helped us grow, learning new approaches to problems and discovering solutions that would carry into our best practices. 2022 taught us that even when there was uncertainty and challenges, our team was always ready to evolve and push forward.
Within this evolution, we forged unforgettable moments and celebrated astonishing milestones. This year, we celebrated 21 years of Perception. That is 21 years of creation, innovation and impacting the world around us through film, technology, automotive, aerospace and so many other key industries. We found a new area of creative challenges within collaborating on content for streaming platforms, testing us to find new and enhanced ways of designing under even faster circumstances.
We partnered with one of our clients from 2010, who called us to work on a project for Major League Baseball because he said that we were the only team he would trust with this massive project. We collaborated with GM and Stellantis to elevate the digital designs of some incredible vehicles. We even brought our cinematic and futuristic touch to a brand new Ford vehicle that has been praised endlessly for its interior designs and user experience.
Within the world of film, we teamed up with Marvel Studios on every single one of their films and series of 2022. In the final months of 2022, we wrapped up a 2 year collaboration with Marvel Studios on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, conceptualizing the futuristic technology of Wakanda from its earliest stages to closing out the film with one of our most intimate and emotional title sequences to date.
But perhaps some of our best moments of the year came from being with our team. After over a year of working remotely and only seeing each other through our screens, we were finally back to crafting magic together. From the big, grand moments of seeing Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as a team, complete with some of our team members who traveled to New Jersey to join us, to the smaller, more casual moments of hopping across the hall to brainstorm ideas. That connection cannot be beat and cannot be forged over Zoom. Getting our team back in the studio was vital, because what we have created since coming back together has been bigger and better than ever before.
Any successful company is about the people. The team is everything. People are everything. With every change that comes and every shift we go through, our team is at the heart of everything. They have carried us through 2022 and will continue to do so through 2023.
And what will 2023 bring to us? Only time will tell. Here at Perception, we are always thinking about the future – of technology, of film, and of our own journey. So, when more curveballs get thrown and different opportunities appear, we’ll be ready to evolve once more – as a team.
