Rhumb Studio is a artistic net studio based mostly between Bristol and Paris. Certainly one of us works from every metropolis, one hour of time distinction, every little thing else is shared. We launched formally on the finish of 2024, and we’re nonetheless determining what which means in observe.
We’re aiming to construct web sites that really feel like someplace the place house, movement, and interplay transcend what an ordinary construct would try. Generally that’s a totally navigable 3D surroundings. Generally it’s one thing subtler.
How we acquired right here
Jack ran a podcast known as Webflail. He’d speak to freelancers and other people working on the internet out of curiosity and a real love for connecting with folks. Maël was a type of conversations, in the summertime of 2023. We stayed in contact after that, had occasional calls and helped one another develop our freelance work. Jack leaning into content material creation and advertising and marketing, Maël into improvement. It grew into weekly classes the place we’d work by way of one another’s issues.
Sooner or later Maël talked about wanting to maneuver away from company white-labelling and discover his personal shoppers. Jack supplied to assist him discover initiatives and kick begin issues by dealing with the content material aspect, and began posting his work on-line to construct traction. Slowly it gained consideration, a couple of alternatives got here in, and that’s after we determined to do it correctly collectively.
Earlier than Rhumb, Jack had labored with Dexter Washington at Crafted Studios, then in advertising and marketing at Edgar Allan, earlier than going freelance. Maël had spent years at Tambien Studio and collaborating with companies on a white-label foundation. The remainder adopted naturally.
What we’re about
We each got here to this with years of freelance work behind us and a shared obsession with what the online can do. That curiosity led us each, independently, towards extra experimental territory: 3D areas, interactions that really feel bodily, experiences that transcend what an ordinary construct would try.
We experiment lots exterior of consumer work. Partly as a result of we’re at all times seeking to be taught one thing new, partly as a result of we simply love constructing issues. We’re drawn to the concept a web site can really feel like someplace. That it will possibly have ambiance, mild, a way of house. That’s what pulls us towards 3D, towards movement, towards interactions that transcend the anticipated.
It feels just like the trade strikes sooner and sooner. New instruments, new developments, new alternatives seem always and it’s straightforward to be drawn in the direction of the subsequent factor. We’re making an attempt to withstand that pull and give attention to what truly issues to us, discovering individuals who love what they do and constructing issues we’re all pleased with.
The studio because the work
Once we constructed rhumb.co, we needed it to be a direct expression of how we expect. The homepage opens on the outside of a constructing lit from inside. You progress by way of it and enter the inside: a heat room with thought of furnishings, ambient mild, art work on the partitions. Every house connects to a unique a part of the studio. The navigation is spatial.
It’s one thing we preserve coming again to, 3D areas as a technique to give a website ambiance and substance. Colour, mild, depth. Issues which might be arduous to attain on a flat floor. We’ve used it throughout previous initiatives the place the aim was to create a world across the work somewhat than simply current it. The 3D turns into the surroundings the content material lives inside.
The technical aspect of that begins in Blender, the place we mannequin, texture and bake full scenes earlier than they ever attain the browser. Baking means the heavy lighting work occurs offline, so what masses within the browser is quick and lean. On prime of that we layer customized shaders that add dynamic specular, regular mapping and ambient occlusion in actual time. That mixture is what offers the scenes their depth and ambiance, with out compromising efficiency.
For supply, we work in two methods relying on the venture. For advanced builds we use Subsequent.js with React Three Fiber and a headless CMS, which supplies shoppers full possession of their content material with out touching the code. For sooner, extra contained initiatives we use Webflow, the place our personal Vite template lets us inject customized code and construct particular options with out shedding the pace and suppleness Webflow presents.
The stack adjustments. The aim doesn’t: scenes that really feel alive, and websites that shoppers can truly handle lengthy after we hand them over.
How we work
Being two is a selection we take into consideration. There’s no lack of data, no time wasted in translation. One level of contact, full possession of each element.
We talk lots, rapidly and with out friction. That dynamic retains issues transferring and retains the work trustworthy. We share references, issues we discover on-line, experiments we’re operating. That fixed alternate feeds straight into the work. We’re at all times constructing one thing or making an attempt one thing exterior of consumer initiatives, and that curiosity reveals up in what we make.
We’re not making an attempt to develop into a big group. We need to keep targeted, taking up the suitable initiatives, working with individuals who care, and having sufficient house to maintain experimenting. That’s what sustainable appears wish to us.
We’re firstly. There’s lots we’re nonetheless determining, about operating a studio, in regards to the type of work we need to make, about who we need to make it with. However we all know what pulls us ahead: curiosity, craft, and individuals who care about what they’re constructing.
If that sounds such as you, we’d love to listen to from you.
