Who the hell is Jens Bombey?

Get to know some of the brilliant minds behind our work. We’re chatting with members of the DixonBaxi studio about what makes them who they are. From the professional to the personal, nothing is off limits here. Introducing: Jens, one of our motion creatives, originally from Antwerp in Belgium and into bouldering, boardgames, videogames and watching his beloved Royal Antwerp FC.

Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Jens, a motion designer here at DB. Originally from Antwerp in Belgium, but settled here in London about 9 years ago now (wow, I’m getting old).

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What’s your story?
Growing up I was always a creative kid: drawing, arts & crafts, painting, sculpting, you name it. After attending a little workshop on stop motion animation, I was fascinated to have the curtains lifted on the magic of animation. I started creating my own short stop motion Lego clips and played around in Flash a lot.

I went to study Digital Design and Development, so I could become a web designer/developer, since animation was just a hobby after all. This is where I learned about motion design’s role in the modern digital world. My eyes were opened and I realised that this hobby of mine could be an actual viable profession.

In hindsight, having the more traditional design background combined with the technical knowhow of coding has actually made me a better all-round animator.

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What are you working on right now?
We’re currently developing a design system for a client whose umbrella brand holds many sub-brands. The challenge is to create one overarching language that can seamlessly combine all the client’s brands in a modular way.

Hopefully the motion design can be the glue that holds everything together.

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“Good design can either evoke emotion and stick with us, or it perfectly blends in so it almost goes by unnoticed.”

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Describe your working style in 3 words.
Trial and error.

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Tell us about some of your interests. What are you into?
Ah, so many interests, so little time. I’m an avid runner and it’s how I usually commute to work, cruising along the beautiful canal path. Besides that, I’m into bouldering, boardgames, videogames and watching my beloved Royal Antwerp FC. I have a bass guitar that’s currently gathering dust and a 3D printer I use to make little collectible toys.

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Do you think design can change the world? How?
Design constantly influences and changes the world. Some clever engineers designed a floppy disk to save data onto, a clever UI designer adopted this as an icon to use as a ‘save’ button. Now we have kids who see a floppy disk and ask “Why do you have a 3D printed save icon?”. Even though the original object is now obsolete, it’s iconic design still lives on.

Design is always there, at any forefront of human innovation. So it will always have a huge influence on the world. It shapes the way we interact with the world in such a subconscious, almost invisible way, that people almost take it for granted.

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If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
From a global point of view: Equal distribution of resources. From a selfish point of view: A proper Belgian Frituur in London. (and for people to stop calling it ‘French fries’ whilst we’re at it).

What’s the last song you listened to?
Well this is unfortunate. I’m currently listening to We Got The Moves by Electric Callboy. If you’ve never heard of them, buckle up for a wild ride of Eurotrash dance music fused with Metalcore.

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Why do you do what you do? What motivates you?
I animate because it’s fun! You have the power to make anything come to life and give a personality to the mundane through motion. It’s always a little bit magical.

Getting a “Hey that’s cool!” from anyone is just a delight. If it’s from fellow animators, it means they appreciate the craft of what I’ve made. If it’s from people who are less versed in what I do, it means that it has struck a chord with them, whether or not they understand exactly why.

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What’s your definition of good design?
There’s two polar opposite answers to this question. Good design can either evoke emotion and stick with us, or it perfectly blends in so it almost goes by unnoticed.

Ever tried to get public transport with bad maps or try to find the exit from an underground car park that has bad signage? Bad design will stick out like a sore thumb.