Creative juices

With its headquarters in Los Angeles and facilities in Beijing, Chiang Mai (Thailand), Pasig City (Philippines), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Dubai, Creative Kingdom is a truly international architectural design consultancy. From these centres, it is able to provide architectural and master planning design using CGI 3D architectural video animation, 2D/3D cartoon animation and video for a base of clients that spans hotels resorts, theme parks and residential customers, with what it terms ‘specialist thematic design architecture’. In the Middle East, the company has played a major role in shaping present-day Dubai, having provided the thematic architectural design for the Madinat Jumeirah resort, and subsequently been invited by the Nakheel Design Group property development organisation to provide concept work for the Palm Jebel Ali development, among other projects.

The company was founded in the US in 1997 by chairman and CEO Eduardo A Robles, and currently has 350 staff including Thanu Boonyawatana, who is president of the US and Dubai operations, and Roberto Caragay, serving as AIA and COO of the US, Dubai and Philippines offices. In Dubai, Mark Thomas is the CFO, with Mauricio Tavares serving as general manager over the company’s in-house recording facility and its music production activities through Creative Kingdom Records – a rather unexpected aspect of the company’s activities. ‘The need for studios arose from the requirements of the architectural animation we provide for clients, as there is audio content that goes with that,’ Mauricio Tavares explains. ‘This then grew to a point where we were offering our services to other clients.’

The first of the company’s operations to establish its own recording studio was in South Africa, where it has taken a key place in the local music scene. This studio has since been joined by facilities in the Philippines, China, Thailand and Los Angeles. Now Creative Kingdom operates a two-room recording facility in Dubai as well – called Creative Kingdom Studios Dubai - and has its eyes on the broader music recording market. ‘Company founder Eduardo Robles has a strong passion for music and is a musician, and it was he who initially drove the idea of us opening our own music studios and being able to offer top services to recording artists,’ Mr Tavares continues. ‘Creative Kingdom Studios Dubai came into full operation in January 2007. It was a stressful year, having to build studios and generate business at the same time, and at one stage we were already working on projects with only half the studio complete.’

If nothing else, it confirmed the demand for the kind of facility that the studio planned to provide. This involved targeting the local R&B and hip-hop scenes as well as international artists looking for alternative locations in which to record. ‘There are already a number of studios in Dubai, but we believe that there will eventually be a legitimate music scene here and we wanted to be involved in it right from the start,’ Mr Tavares explains. ‘When the music industry really takes off and artists are coming to Dubai specifically to record, we will be an established studio.’

The completed facility offers two studios, one with a dual Yamaha DM2000 mixing console and a Logic DAW, and the other with a Digidesign Pro Control 24/Pro Tools HD2 system. Both have Genelec 5.1/stereo loudspeaker systems, a thoughtful selection of outboard and access to a healthily stocked microphone cupboard. This can be turned to suit individual projects, whether they are related to the company’s architectural consultancy work or music recording. ‘CKD sources producers, engineers and other staff as needed,’ Mr Tavares says. ‘On a full-time basis there is a senior engineer from the US, a producer, graphic artist, video editor, business developer and administration staff - about seven people in total. We believe we also have the top producer and engineer in Dubai.’

Indeed, hip-hop producer Q (from Ras Al Khaimah) has worked on music for hit TV series Heroes and commercials for Adidas, while LA-based engineer and mixer Joshua F Williams joined the company last year with a CV that includes Bruce Springsteen, Fergie and Stevie Wonder. ‘A typical music project would involve our producers and engineers spending a few days with the artist to fully understand their needs and expectations,’ Mr Tavares says. ‘Once it’s been determined that we can work together, the studio will set up a time schedule and a programme of musicians that will be needed for the project. A typical production and mixing project will use both studios - the Logic studio for vocal recording and production, and the Pro Tools studio for mixing and finalisation. A typical four-piece band recording 12 tracks would generally take around 40 days to complete.’

While the studios in Thailand handle all the animation, the other Creative Kingdom studios have made inroads into their respective music scenes through the Creative Kingdom Records label – with the Dubai facility poised to join them. And the studios are also gaining an international profile independently of the record label. ‘We recently worked with a musician from Australia who discovered us online - he liked the look of the studio, got some referrals and we sent him some tracks,’ Mr Tavares says. ‘We’ve also worked with singer/songwriter Karl Wolf, who is based in Canada. His label liked some of our previous work and we ended up producing four tracks on his new album. Another very exciting project we recently worked on was the new album by hip-hop artist Kaz Money.

‘The studios in China are truly world-class. We call on our sister studios for support and assistance with large jobs or just to assist on a project. We keep in close contact with all our resources in order to offer a complete product to the client.’

Right now, there are plans to relocate the studios to Dubai Studio City, where there would be three recording studios, two production studios and two video editing suites. The kingdom is set to extend its borders. ‘We have been granted a licence for Dubai Media City and we are on the waiting list for premises there,’ Mr Tavares concludes. ‘We are looking at Studio City as well, and hopefully sometime later this year we will be in our new studios.’

www.creativekingdom.com