'Ay up!

Welcome to my creative space, which I affectionately call ‘The Den’. I love being surrounded by ’stuff’; Toys, trinkets, books, prints and anything else colourful. I prefer a ‘maximalist’ approach to my surroundings, stuffing my eyeballs with as much input as possible. I like screens too. Lots of screens. As many screens as possible please. I love those sweet, sweet pixels. You can find an in-depth interview about my space on Maker Stations.

Hopefully my work is diverse in nature but all held together of a common thread of fun and high energy. By night I go under the alias of ‘Jamfactory’, indulging in all manner of passion projects, from filmmaking to illustration, toy design to photography and even making music under the moniker of ‘Project Toy’. This website you’re on is my digital home, sharing all the things I love to create and has been my online portfolio for the last 20 years, originally registering the domain in February 2001!

I’m lucky enough to be a keynote speaker and have spoken around the world, from Mexico to Manchester, the Middle East to Munich! In 2016, after speaking at the wonderful Do Lectures, I wrote the book ‘Do Fly’, a motivational mantra published by The Do Book Co.

I co-founded the contemporary design store ‘STRANGE’ with my wife Jane and even appeared on CBBC’s art-themed TV show ‘Art Ninja’!

I try and pride myself on being a ‘realistic idealist’ or ‘idealistic realist’ – striking the balance between uncurbed enthusiasm and pragmatic process. Floaty sentiments aside, my talks are about the ever-tricky task of finding the energy and making the time to create things that matter. That’s something I believes applies to everyone - from a GSCE student to serious CEO!

I live in Bristol, UK with my wife, 2 children and our adopted rescue greyhound Peggy.

My name is Gavin Strange and I’m a Director & Designer for the iconic British creative studio Aardman. Working there for over a thirteen years, my creative output ranges from motion graphic title sequences for the OFFF festival and Shaun the Sheep feature film, to live-action channel idents for BBC Two and mixed media Christmas films for Fortnum & Mason. Most recently I directed the (multi-award winning!) ‘Turtle Journey’, an emotional stop-frame short film for Greenpeace about the plight of the oceans.

Daily driver

My daily machine is an Apple MacBook Pro connected to two LG 25” ultrawide displays, mounted on twin vesa-mount arms. I use the Apple Magic Mouse 2 and Keychron K3 keyboard. Audio comes through the very affordable and brilliant JBL 104 monitors or via Bose QC-25 headphones. The most important thing in this set-up is the chair - I have the Herman Miller Aeron but purchased second-hand from the wonderfully good value 2ndhnd.com.

The RAMfactory

This beast of a PC was a custom build from my friends at Novatech and is affectionately known as ‘The RAMfactory’. It’s based on their HyperStation WSW-QR4 model and I use it for specific work; mainly 3D tools and live streaming on Twitch. Here’s the specs:

Intel Xeon W-2145 CPU
NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 8GB GPU
64GB ECC REG Memory
2 x Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 512GB
Seagate BarraCuda 2TB HDD
SuperMicro X11SRA Motherboard
Fractal Design Define R6 Case
BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 11 PSU
Keychron K4 keyboard
Anker Verticle Mouse
LG 27” 4K Monitor 27UK670
BenQ 27” 1080HD Monitor

Streaming

I stream on Twitch - twitch.tv/jamfactorylive - once a week, sharing positive, fun, creative stuff I admire from around the world. Software-wise I use OBS running on the PC but combine that with my Mac running Keynote, piped into the PC via HDMI through a Elgato HD60 capture card.

Music

Making music is a big passion of mine. It might all be a bit wonky, but it sure is fun to make. I love buttons and tactile interfaces, and music production offer so many toys to play with. I only have a few bits of hardware but they’re a blast to use.

SOFTWARE LIST

Creativity

My day-to-day apps are Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop & InDesign. Shout out to the Affinity suite though, I need to dive into their software more, from what I have used, it’s flipping great.
Adobe Premiere and After Effects are my standards for film & moving image.
Lightroom is great for photo editing, as is Darkroom app on the iPhone.
I use Apple’s Keynote for putting my talks together but often for laying out mood boards and basic layout work.
Cinema 4D and Octane renderer for my 3D work. I’m hearing the alluring calls of Blender though so I need to make the jump into that soon. Shoutout to Notch for super fun realtime 3D too, check it out.
Ableton Live Suite for making sweet, sweet music.
Ulysses on the Mac and iOS devices for writing - super clean and simple.
OBS for Live Streaming

Productivity

Fantastical is well, fantastic, for managing my calendars
I’m enjoying MIRO for virtual whiteboards and collaborative planning
CleanMyMacX for keeping my machine nice and tidy
Magnet for snapping windows neatly in Mac OS
Dropbox everywhere for syncing everything
1Password for password management
Spark on desktop and phone for emails
Bear for note taking & idea capturing
Mac OS’s ‘Shifting Tiles’ screensaver linked to a folder for constant inspiration

ABLETON PUSH 2

This thing is so satisfying to use. Paired with Ableton Live, you don’t ever need to look at the screen, you can do everything you need looking at the hardware. The build quality is so high and it encourages you just to play - press stuff and see what happens.

TEENAGE ENGINEERING OP-Z

This pint-sized object is pure joy. It’s a DAW-less sequencer and synthesiser, meaning it’s all you need to make music on the go. I’ve taken it all over the world with me and it is just so much fun to play with. The power of this little thing is spectacular, using step components to create truly organic beats that take on a life of their own. I use it on my live streams too, for a musical interlude, to scare myself into sharing my musical process more. I really love this thing.

MIDI FIGHTER 3D

I love arcade buttons. I love colourful lights. I love music hardware. Once I saw this thing, I had to have it! I use it a lot in my on-stage talks, often for a musical interlude, triggering sample packs I built in Ableton Live.

My main camera is the awesome Fuji X100F mirrorless connected via micro-HDMI to a CamLink 4K. A couple other USB Webcam’s provide alternative angles and an Elgato Key Light illuminates the scene.

For audio capture I use Rode NT-USB microphone mounted on a Manfrotto Magic Arm.

For a bit of vision mixing I use this joyous object - a ‘WOTTO’ MIDI controller. Using MIDI2Key I can convert the button signals into OBS shortcuts!