“I was wondering where all the CGI women were hiding”: Dada Projects on thrashing gender imbalances

Striving to tackle the gender imbalance in CGI – and more broadly the creative industry – Christina Worner, founder of Dada Projects, has a clear mission in mind. Despite being only six months old, half a year is all it’s taken for the “freshly launched” studio to carve an identifiable style, name and ethos for itself, having worked across fashion, lifestyle, tech and music at the intersection of motion, VFX and graphic design. “The female-led aspect is quite a big part of our identity,” she explained, “as it’s still quite a male-dominated profession.” Christina continued to share her experiences of starting out as a freelancer, where she worked in majority male teams. This led her to question, “where are all the CGI women?” Dada Projects was therefore borne with an aim to challenge diversity and “increase visibility of women in digital design”.

Collaboration, cosiness, empathy and play are some key words that Christina brought up in her talk, which defines not only the studio’s practice but also the team’s method of doing things. The identity for New Zealand-based 121Festival was a fine example, where the studio crafted a brutalist and nature-filled landscape inspired by the local flora and fauna, which the team remodelled and sculpted in 3D. The studio are “passionate ravers” themselves, said Christina, so the identity for the three-day music festival was a dream project to work on – and an utter treat to observe the makings-of from a seat in the audience, too. “The art direction we chose, in terms of lighting and colours, is quite sunny, warm and peaceful, but we also wanted to inject some energy,” she explained. “So we showed a day and nighttime cycle as if you would experience it at a festival.” If this hasn't already gotten you in the mood for a boogie then we’re sure the full video catch-up will do just that.