Animmersion – from students to employers by degrees
Animmersion UK Ltd - a professional visualisation studio
As visualisation students, two housemates talked about setting up their own company. Now the duo has successfully realised their ambition and taken on an additional two Teesside graduates.
- 2001: Sam, Dominic and Andy graduate at Teesside
- 2005: Sam won a DigitalCity Fellowship
- 2006: Sam and Dominic set up Animmersion
- 2006: Animmersion supported in our graduate business units
- 2006: Animmersion employs first Teesside graduate
- 2008: Animmersion moves into IDI
- 2009: Animmersion moves into BoHo One
Animmersion UK Ltd was set up by Dominic Lusardi, 32, from Leeds, who graduated with a BSc (Hons) Visualisation and Sam Harrison, 31, from Nottingham, who graduated with a BA (Hons) Creative Visualisation.
They have since been joined by Andy Liddell, BA (Hons) Creative Visualisation and Andrew McAdam, BA (Hons) Computer Animation.
As Dominic, now Managing Director of Animmersion, said, ‘University was a fantastic experience and I made exceptional friends. We spoke about setting up our own business every day.’
Industrial experience
‘While we knew we wanted our company, we needed industrial experience first,’ Sam added. ‘Dominic went into the games industry, Andy worked in multimedia development and I worked within virtual reality. We agreed to reconvene when the time was right.’
Supported as graduates
In 2005 Sam was awarded a University’s DigitalCity Fellowship to develop the Animmersion business concept.
The Fellowship scheme offers support to talented Teesside graduates to develop commercially-viable ideas.
One year later Sam and Dominic joined forces in the University’s Graduate Business Unit to form Animmersion UK Ltd. ‘It was an excellent opportunity to get low-cost office premises. And we benefited from training in business planning, accounting, marketing and sales.’
A digital community
When their tenancy ended, Animmersion moved into the Institute of Digital Innovation within the University’s Phoenix Building. And when BoHo One, the flagship building for Middlesbrough’s new BoHo Zone opened, they were keen to move in. The company has grown over the last four years. Andy joined in 2006, followed by Andrew McAdam in 2009, another Teesside graduate.
Animmersion creates visually rich and interactive websites, animations and virtual environments. As Sam said, ‘We are using a lot of what we learned at University. The joy of having our own company is that we can see projects through from start to finish. Teesside allowed us to convert our passions into reality.’
Recruiting new graduates
As Dominic said, ‘It’s important for us to keep our University links and enable graduates to stay within the region – we’re passionate about our work here.
‘My advice is to get advice from the people around you, don’t be afraid to change your opinions and believe that you can.’ ‘And take advantage of every opportunity University gives you to get experience’, added Sam.
