anthony rogers

Anthony started from a product design background and now finds himself applying many of the same principles when writing code. 'User interaction is the same whether you are designing a car or software,' he explains. 'It still has to be user-friendly -- except you get your hands dirty when you make a car.'
   He became part of antirom a year ago having paid his dues freelancing for larger organizations. 'Most companies you work for are terrible. You work on a project for two months, do all the work and they just say, "Cheers mate," and take all the credit,' he says woefully.
   'Because we can trust that people here to know what they are doing, we can work in our own way,' he says. This has tended to position antirom in unusual relationships with clients. 'Clients expect to come here and be told off. They've been everywhere already and they come to us and say, "Can you make it as this?" We tend to say, "No, because you want it like this," or "What about this?" and they listen.'

andy cameron

Andy was the tutor of six of the members of antirom at the University of Westminster. He believes that the lack of definition in our relationships has been a powerful force behind the creativity in the studio.
   He believes a key element of our working style is the backgrounds of antirom members. 'We have a handle on the cultures of video-gaming,' he says, 'and because of the experiences of people here in photography, cinema, video and sound, we manage to do things which use the traditional media forms but don't fall into the trap of structuring them in traditional ways.
   'The lesson of video-games is that interactive media needs to engage you in a playful way if it is to engage you. This is the message that many designers whose backgrounds are rooted in much more traditional media don't seem to have learned.'

joe stephenson

Having attended the University of Westminster with the some of the other members, Joe spent two years working for Sega in California. Disappointed with the restrictions of a large corporation he returned to rejoin antirom in London.
   'It's better than being in a cubicle,' he says. 'antirom allows me to master of my own destiny. Of course, actually faced with that, it's fairly horrific. It's easy to sit in you little hutch in your corporate job and think, "If only..."'
   Like most others in the group, Joe sees antirom as a launching pad for a number of projects, in fact, whatever people might feel they wish to get involved in. 'I think the workspace sums up the idea of us. This place functions as a chaotic exchange area of both intellectual ideas and economic deals between all of us.'