Success Story
Cross-media masters
Vasava artists push the boundaries of cross-disciplinary design
with Adobe® Creative Suite® Master Collection software
Designers at Vasava understand that the
journey is the destination. The studio
prides itself on continual learning, creative
experimentation, and risk-taking. Every
project has to be special, and the process is
equally important as the final outcome.
Started in Barcelona in 1997, Vasava today
is a communication studio with 18 young
designers who specialize in cross-media
projects: print, web, motion, 3D animation,
and video. To unleash creativity and meet
the deadline-driven demands of clients,
Vasava relies on the integrated, crossdiscipline tools found in Adobe Creative
Suite Master Collection software.
Vasava artists rely on the integrated, cross-discipline tools found in
Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection software to design projects that
reflect each client’s distinctiveness, such as a book commemorating
the 50th birthday of the founder of Diesel—complete with customized
“Donaldopoly” game board.
“Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection
software is now our constant companion
in our journey of discovery.”
Toni Selles, co-Founder, Vasava
“Vasava isn’t a studio—it’s an experience,” says
Co-founder Toni Selles. “Through the practice
of our work, we get a little better every day. It is
important for us to be like children: experimenting, living, and feeling what we are doing.
Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection
software is now our constant companion in our
journey of discovery.”
Erasing boundaries
In 1997, Toni founded Vasava with his son,
Bruno, in one of the Selles’ bedrooms. With just
one shared computer, Toni worked by day and
Bruno worked by night. The studio grew
continuously until one day Toni and Bruno
realized they had no space in the house left to
live. Since moving the studio into its own space,
Vasava has continued to grow and flourish.
Vasava works for companies large and small,
including well-known brands such as MTV,
BWM, Diesel, and Budweiser. The studio’s
designers spend time on commercial work but
also on awe-inspiring personal design that is
displayed in exhibitions around the world.
An end-to-end Adobe workflow
Regardless of the creative vision or project at
hand, designers at Vasava start with an initial
concept created in Adobe Illustrator® and
Photoshop®, and then move that concept on to
multiple media. The studio’s team of talented
creative professionals now rely on Adobe Creative
Suite 4 Master Collection, including Adobe
InDesign® CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended,
Illustrator CS4, Dreamweaver® CS4, Flash® CS4
Professional, After Effects® CS4, Adobe Premiere®
Pro CS4, and Soundbooth™ CS4 software to
provide a fluid, cross-media workflow.
“Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection gives
our team a streamlined process that lets us reuse
and repurpose assets for print, motion graphics,
interactive projects, or video,” says Bruno Selles,
Vasava co-founder and creative director. “Adobe
software enables everyone on the team to do
their part and then integrate everything together
into an exceptional product for clients—all
within the context of an efficient, deadlinedriven workflow.”
More creative options, greater creative
control
For illustrations, Vasava designers start by
drafting in pencil, scan the drawings, and use
both Illustrator CS4 and Photoshop CS4
Extended to complete them. For page layout,
InDesign CS4 is the studio’s standard tool. Final
output for print projects is always delivered in
Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).
With Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection,
designers have more creative freedom and tools
that save time and provide precise control over
projects. Designers appreciate the new support
for multiple art boards in Illustrator CS4, while
the new Blob Brush gives them the freedom to
draw by hand. “The Blob Brush in Illustrator CS4
Company
Vasava
Barcelona, Spain
www.vasava.es
Whether designing for worldwide brands, small
businesses, or personal projects, Vasava artists
create awe-inspiring work that always starts with
Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop software and
leverages Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection
software for a fluid, cross-media workflow.
is not just another brush; instead, it feels like a
whole new way of freeform drawing using
vectors,” says Bruno Selles. The new 3D painting
and compositing tools in Photoshop CS4
Extended give artists the ability to take 3D
objects, import them into Photoshop, paint over
them, texturize them, add lighting effects, and
more—and all in a matter of minutes. “I’ve
always wanted to experiment in 3D without
having to become a 3D specialist, and now I
can in Photoshop CS4 Extended,” Bruno
Selles explains.
When it comes to page layout, Vasava designers
rave about Live Preflight in InDesign CS4.
“Live Preflight in InDesign CS4 catches
mistakes or potential output problems during
the design phase, when it’s much easier to fix
them,” says Marta Cerda, Vasava graphic
designer. “It saves time and gives us more
precise control over the final product so, in the
end, our clients are more satisfied.”
InDesign CS4 has become central to more than
just the print workflow. With Adobe Creative
Suite 4 Design Premium, artists can create a
digital document using InDesign CS4 with
interactive page transitions, animated buttons,
and more. Then they can export it as a SWF file
to deliver an interactive presentation that can be
viewed with Adobe Flash Player software. “The
ability to play content created in InDesign CS4
using Adobe Flash Player is just one example of
the new power of the Adobe applications and
their ability to help us go from print to web with
extreme fluidity,” says Cerda.
More efficient tapeless workflows, plus
metadata
For video projects, the Vasava team uses 3D
software along with Adobe Premiere Pro,
After Effects, Illustrator, and Photoshop. The
Vasava team appreciates the ability to work
smoothly in 3D using Adobe and third-party
tools. “In After Effects CS4, the ability to
import a file with 3D layers from Photoshop CS4
Extended, work with them in After Effects CS4
to rotate and scale objects, and then export
our After Effects work as layered files that can
be imported into Flash CS4 Professional is
invaluable,” says Alex Fernandez, Vasava
animator and sound engineer. “These are
exceptionally powerful tools for enabling our
cross-media workflow.”
The team also uses Adobe Soundbooth CS4 for
editing various audio clips at the same time,
whether they are loops, music, special sound
effects, or dialog. “With Soundbooth CS4, we
can equalize the volume of all our audio clips
with just one click, reducing time spent on
repetitive tasks,” says Fernandez.
As projects move through the video-editing
pipeline, two of the most impressive aspects of
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 are its ability to deliver
project intelligence through support for
metadata and native support for tapeless formats,
including RED, Panasonic P2, XDCAM, and
AVCHD. When the Vasava team films a piece in
the P2 format, the metadata logged at the
shoot—the talent, camera settings, place, studio,
the videographer, etc.—is instantly contained in
every file. “Using a tapeless workflow, not only
can we instantly drop footage immediately into
Challenge
•Dissolve creative boundaries
• Work smoothly across media, reusing
and repurposing assets
• Enable everyone on the team to
contribute and then integrate
everything together
• Keep pace with deadlines
• Succeed with both commercial and
personal design work
• Reduce time spent on repetitive tasks
Solution
•Use Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master
Collection for a multitude of crossmedia projects
• Leverage the integration among
Adobe tools to work more efficiently
• Unleash creativity using new tools in
Creative Suite 4 editions
Benefits
•Spurring exceptional design
breakthroughs with new creative tools
• Sharing and reusing assets with ease
across multiple media and outputs
• Finding more time for creativity by
reducing time spent on repetitive tasks
• Staying more efficient to more easily
meet deadlines
• Contributing as individuals and then
integrating projects together
• Enhancing the quality of work
Toolkit
•Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master
Collection. Components used include:
• Adobe Acrobat® Professional
• Adobe After Effects CS4
• Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
• Adobe Flash CS4 Professional
• Adobe Illustrator CS4
• Adobe InDesign CS4
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended
• Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
• Adobe Soundbooth CS4
Adobe InDesign CS4 software, Vasava’s standard tool for page layout, is central to more than just print workflows.
Its support for SWF file export helps the studio move projects from print to web with extreme fluidity.
Musac Zoovillization: An installation for contemporary art museum
OFFF NY: Contribution to the OFFF NY Catalog
“Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection
gives our team a streamlined process that lets
us reuse and repurpose assets for print, motion
graphics, interactive projects, or video.”
Bruno Selles, co-founder and creative director, Vasava
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 without transcoding or
rewrapping, but we can also track, find, select,
and organize our files more easily than ever,”
says Javier Ramos, Vasava audiovisual designer.
Intuitively simple yet powerful web tools
Vasava also leverages Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
for website design and Adobe Flash CS4
Professional for animations and interactive
content development. “With our Adobe toolset
including Dreamweaver CS4, we can create
dynamic user interfaces with rich visual
transitions using the pre-built widgets and
effects from the Spry framework for Ajax—all
while complying with industry standards and
best practices,” explains Miguel Angel, Vasava
web programmer.
Flash CS4 Professional also offers many exciting
new features that allow web specialists at Vasava
to push the boundaries of their creativity and
bump up the quality and productivity of their
work. “The Bones tool enables us to give
animated characters life-like motion in ways we
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never could before,” says Angel. “And the fact
that tweens are now applied directly to objects
with the new object-based animation model
makes working in Flash so much more efficient.”
In addition, the new Motion Editor in Adobe
Flash CS4 Professional, which provides the
ability to control animation parameters
independently, is similar to the familiar
timeline in After Effects CS4 software. “The
Motion Editor in Flash CS4 Professional is
very simple to use and understand, and it puts
a wealth of functionality at interactive
programmers’ fingertips,” says Pablo Marino,
programmer at Vasava.
Technology in support of creativity
Whether they are programming for the web,
editing video, or designing for print, the artists
at Vasava continually find ways to push the
boundaries of their craft, with a passion that
shines through in everything they do.
“Creativity is unleashed when you don’t have to
worry about technology, so we can do the best
possible work for clients,” says Bruno Selles.
“With the integration among applications in
Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection and
the confidence of knowing we can start in the
software we are comfortable with and transfer it
to any other Adobe application whenever we
need to, we can focus on creativity and delivering
work that exceeds client expectations—the
technical aspects of what we’re doing disappear
into the background.”
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are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the
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© 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.
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