Born in Germany in 1980 into a family of artists Till Nowak was destined to have creative talent. As a child his toys consisted of video and super 8 cameras with which he would make little stop motion films. At twelve years old he received his first computer and from there the possibilities were endless. By the age of 19 Till founded his own studio, frameboX, and began his professional career. Till tells us he had always wanted to start out as his own boss and he has never worked for another company, not even for one day and not even as an intern. He has done a lot of commercial work in classical print and web design and has specialized in computer generated images and animations. In addition to the jobs for TV and creative agencies, Till has created an impressive portfolio of independent artworks. While pursuing his professional career he completed his formal studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz, Germany in 2005 where he studied media design. His graduation project ,a short film named “Delivery,“ has received over 30 awards and he has traveled around the world showing it at film festivals.


IT’S ART: Could you tell us about your artistic evolution and perception of digital art?

Till Nowak: For me it was like a rollercoaster ride through all forms of digital media. When I was 12 I got my first PC and started experimenting first by programming hundreds of QBASIC scripts and then later I started producing digital music with synthesizers and sequencers. At the same time my passion for film and cinema was growing and computer gaming also played a big role in my growing fascination with digital art. I discovered Photoshop, Premiere, some 3D software and Flash when I was 15 and the following years I was teaching myself how to use all of the important digital tools until I knew them thoroughly. I still had a lot of party time, girlfriends and snowboard holidays; otherwise you could have called me a complete geek! Today my interdisciplinary work is somewhere between design, art and film and I see myself still searching for the right way in this business. The challenge is of course to find the right balance between commercial and independent work and the many possible disciplines to work in.

IA: You're one of the few digital artists who have experimented with many different forms of expression using modern tools, from animation to art installations (the Edges Series). Could you tell us about these different modes of expression? In what ways they're different? And what is in your opinion the most powerful form of expression?

TN: The potpourri of creative tools and forms of expressions, especially in the digital world, is so rich that I can’t imagine not trying all of them. I don’t feel any limitations when I jump around between them, and the most interesting things happen when you combine different forms. For example, the way I combined 3D and installation art in “Edges” or photography with 3D in “Dishes.” But for me the most powerful form of art is film. Film brings everything together: design, poetry, music, acting, lighting, storytelling and timing. In my personal opinion nothing can cause stronger emotions than film, except maybe real life itself.

IA: Your work as animator for the short film “The Delivery” has been awarded numerous times. Could you speak about this experience, from the making of the film to its success and what you've learned from it?

TN: I was studying in parallel to my professional career and I produced this short film as my thesis for graduation. I didn’t expect this little film to change my life, but it all went really crazy. At first, when I entered it only into some small festivals, I didn’t have big plans for it. I just thought that one or two festivals would be nice to show the film and meet some people. Then the film won awards in the first three festivals and I recognized that it had much more potential. From this point I started to enter the film into many festivals all over the world and an extremely exciting journey began for me. Over three years I travelled to Australia, Korea, USA, Spain and many other countries and until now the film has been screened in more than 200 festivals. I have sold it to some TV stations in some countries and won more than 35 awards. My horizon completely changed, I met many great people, received many interesting offers and it gave me the most important impulse: to change my focus from commercial advertising work to independent art and cinema. Most recently I released a DVD with the short film, a documentary about my work and many special features which you can buy directly on my website at www.framebox.com