Going forward I'm still going to be taking on animation contract work. However, on August 18th I had what I'm expecting will be my last day of animation work out of someone's offices. Working in-house has become rarer, especially since COVID, as animation has increasingly been done remotely. Nevertheless, it has been a consistent feature of my life since 1994 as I worked out of advertising agencies, film companies, post-production facilities, "new media" outlets, events organisations, branding consultancies, and design agencies. On the other hand, as a Design and Technology teacher I will now be "in-house" every single day. As you can imagine that's going to take some adjusting to. I've spent the past year getting my head around it.
Before this last job got confirmed, in which for one of the five days I dropped into the office at Great Pulteney Street, I had planned to take an afternoon visiting the significant offices in London I have worked in over the years. Because no-one is going to give me Rolex watch and pat me on the back for all my years of service, and it's still necessary to process these things. As I plotted out my ritualised itinerary I came to realise that almost all of the companies I was going to visit had either shut down or moved elsewhere. In some cases entire buildings had been demolished. The only tangible thing was a sensation of impermanence. In the end I decided it was futile idea.
Around the corner from where I was in Soho on Tuesday were the offices of RSA Films Ltd. This was the director Ridley Scott's advertising production company and where, between 1994 and 1995, I had my first full-time job. I later did some animation work out of the building. On Beak Street, it's not supposed to be empty apparently. Perhaps the main offices are now on the higher floors? But it certainly looks deserted in 2026. The ground floor was always the nerve centre back then. Looking through the windows at the abandoned space it's bittersweet to remember all the drama that once unfolded there.
