NorthHouse CEO Tom Bairstow: Flourishing Outside the Comfort Zone NorthHouse is known for specializing in projection, screen and broadcast design for live shows, events, installations and immersive experiences

Life for Tom Bairstow, CEO of multi-award-winning creative studio NorthHouse, is mind-blowingly varied – one day Tom could be in Dubai, the next LA, back to his office in London and then out to the Mediterranean. Tom is wherever NorthHouse's next cutting-edge show is being performed.

NorthHouse is known for specializing in projection, screen and broadcast design for live shows, events, installations and immersive experiences.

Collaborating with a plethora of creative talent, NorthHouse has meticulously planned, designed and delivered technologically groundbreaking visuals for shows which include Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee Party, 2022 Super Bowl, Coldplay's live show at Al Wasl Dome - where NorthHouse created a beautifully cosmic, immersive experience for the 2022 Dubai EXPO - and the Windsor Castle projection show for King Charles III Coronation party, to name but a few.

Working from scratch to create their remarkable shows, from pen and paper design brainstorms through to progressive AI technology, NorthHouse works alongside some of the most talented teams in the world to over deliver, but no matter how jaw-dropping the event or people performing on the bill, for Tom the exciting element of his work is creating positive connections with their audiences: "We could be delivering to a stadium of 80,000 people in Buenos Aires, the masses outside of Buckingham Palace, visitors to a Casino resort in Macau, a boat party in the Mediterranean or at the Al Wasl Dome in Dubai - however big the audience, it's always so rewarding seeing how our visuals create such an impactful experience for people that connects them to the music, the brand or each other," explains Tom.

This passion for connecting audiences has been a driving force behind Tom's work which has taken NorthHouse from a one-man band through to a team of 16 full-time employees and a huge roster of freelancers operating on a global scale from their converted warehouse studio, just off Bermondsey Street, London Bridge. Tom's entrepreneurial spirit very rarely allows him to stay within his own comfort zone,

"I think I'm constantly just bouncing off the edge of my comfort zone, if not going beyond it.

It's all part of running a company, but especially in the creative industry and especially with such a large volume of our work being in live entertainment. Every day and each week can offer something new and untested. It keeps the projects side of things interesting for us as we're always exploring new tech and ideas. And for me personally, I'm constantly looking for ways to push the company forwards and stay ahead of the ever-evolving industry. This brings its own challenges and risks - you're doing things for the very first time and every day is a learning curve. It's incredibly rewarding when the plans come together but there's always those 'oh shit' moments."

NorthHouse's success story has not always been a smooth journey. As most businesses can attest, the Covid pandemic starting in 2020 was a huge challenge, a setback which, thankfully, led to personal growth and business innovation which ultimately put NorthHouse more firmly on the map.

"It was incredibly tough seeing project after project cancel in March 2020," elaborates Tom.

"We were a small team back then but the relative impact of seeing our entire industry crumble into the ocean over a week or two was truly devastating and it left very little hope on the horizon.

Up until this point, I'd led the company in much more of a reactive manner. Very rarely did I have to reach out to clients, but once Covid hit I quickly had to switch my mindset to a completely proactive manner and focus on marketing, developing our offerings, connecting with clients, and ultimately becoming a salesperson for the studio.

In tandem, we became much stronger and tighter as a team, and it forced me into developing the brand and our positioning. It also really taught me how to network and showcase our work to find new projects in areas we'd not yet tapped into."

With the intense speed technology is changing the landscape of the entertainment industry, Tom ensures NorthHouse has a proactive approach to change. AI is probably one of the greatest technological changes seen in business today and has been embraced at NorthHouse.

"Of course we're having to embrace AI and can see both the pros and cons to it. I'm a complete traditionalist in many ways but I'm also so excited by the evolution of technology - as are the team. AI can provide huge assistance to workflow if it's used correctly..." Tom confirmed, "… we use AI to quickly flesh out ideas through concept art before aligning this with traditional tools to design up proficiently and completely. It helps us with a variety of VFX tasks and helps us create colossally large-scale renders for the ever-increasing size of screen and projection surface areas ( or canvas size as we like to call it) . One of our current projects has 125 million pixels to work with. In comparison, 4K broadcast video is just 8 million pixels, so we're constantly seeking out the best technical workflows to adapt to the increasing scale of screen and canvas sizes and the benefits of using AI are considerable in this field. The list goes on, but every week there's a new technological opportunity to drive innovation, our main stay though is always focused on the core qualities of beautifully crafted design work."

However beneficial AI can be, time management is a skill that stems from the team and Tom tends to breakdown his workday into 30 minutes chunks, except for deep work or team catch ups. This way he ensures each part of the day has his undivided attention and gains maximum productivity. Alongside decision-making, Tom keeps his skill set relevant to the ever-changing industry.

The list of areas Tom wants to expand his skills within never ends: "There's always so many things on my 'learning list' that are banked but I do feel I/we are so fortunate to always be learning something new every day with such an eclectic mix of projects to explore. I hold my hands up, because I come from a music and design background, I've only got a basic or intermediate understanding of many of the more advanced technical and 3D design tools that we use in the studio, I'd love to advance my 3D design capabilities" Tom continued, "This is essentially why I began forming a team in the beginning, because I could see the gaps within my skill set and knew that I needed to find talented people with much better expertise than myself to create the work I wanted to create, work our clients were looking for. I'm also always keen to continue learning in so many areas outside of NorthHouse's current offerings because you never know how an outside skill can form part of your regular toolkit. For instance I love playing piano and drums and making music in Logic or Albeton and continue to explore these areas. I'd love to go back to Art school at some point for a fine art course and I'm keen to further explore architectural, production and lighting design. Ultimately I think it's just so important to continue learning, creating, growing and sharing that knowledge.

Tom's first love was always music, having played piano from a very young age, he soon added drums and guitar into the mix and went on to play drums for touring bands. Tom believes music provides a core ingredient and inspirational element to every project they create and as a teenager his fascination with photography and filmmaking combined to give him a creative edge that would flourish at Art College and lead to his Graphic Art & Design degree at University.

Tom reminisces: "I knew I always wanted to be in some form of live entertainment and at age 22, I dropped the drumsticks and picked up a video camera and Macbook to start making music videos and live visuals for local bands and from 2009 onwards the projects I worked on became bigger and bigger and I knew this is what I wanted to do. I remember driving down to Wales back in 2009 in my old Citroen AX 950CC for rehearsals of my very first show - Lemar, the Reason. I just had this incredibly epiphanic moment as I tootled down the M56 that this was exactly what I wanted to do with my life. Travel with work and working on live shows."

In 2010 Tom left Leeds for London and by 2012 he had set up NorthHouse. The incoming project count was gradually rising and soon became too much for Tom to handle alone, so he began to form a team of full-time and freelance team members who would not only add extra hands but enable NorthHouse to increase the quality of their work. Tom concluded: "And the rest is history really, it's always been a case of finding the best designers, animators, technologists, producers to grow the team to facilitate the projects and expand our range of expertise for clients to benefit from."

When analyzing the success of NorthHouse, meeting the right people at the right time proved pivotal for the company's growth, Tom elaborates: "In 2015, we first started working with Kim Gavin (Director of the Olympics closing ceremony in 2012, countless Take That Tours amongst many other huge shows and events). Dan Shipton (Black Skull Creative) introduced us to Kim, and we started developing Take That's 'III' Tour together. We'd created visuals for big music shows before this, but this was special for a few reasons. First of all, this was our first major arena touring show where we had a good budget to work with and could put a big team together to really push the creative. It also had a very personal connection for me as my late father Tony Marshall, once a photographer, took the band's promo shots when they were first starting out in Manchester. And finally, I met Production Designer Misty Buckley and we clicked from the start when we first met in a production office in Wandsworth (that soon after became our studio and was once the Rolling Stones' management office). Misty and I have gone on to create countless shows together including various Coldplay shows and World Tours (such as the SuperBowl Half-time show with Beyonce, Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson). I have maintained great relationships with Kim, Dan and Misty and I get to travel all over the world with people I really enjoy creating with."

In short, Tom loves what he does, but work can become consuming so he holds his personal time sacred, whether it's spending precious time with his family (wife and two boys aged six and four), getting out into nature for long walks or runs, making music, or hurtling down a mountain on his bike, he needs to take this time out to focus away from the intensity of running a business.

"I also really enjoy the journey into work and do my best to make the most of it.

Of course, having 2 boys aged 6 and 4 can often make the mornings a bit chaotic but once they're dropped off, I've got a nice walk through a park before jumping on a 25 minute train to our lovely studio in London Bridge. And this train journey is such a sacred space where I can sit and listen to a podcast and check my calendar and plans for the day."

To curb his own curiosity and feed his insatiable appetite for all things business, Tom keeps up to date with relevant podcasts including Steven Bartlett's 'Diary of a CEO' and is a great fan of the book 'Shoe Dog' by Phil Knight which inspired him to jump on the opportunity to build the company based on the passion he holds including running the business with a powerful emphasis on wellbeing.

Any time for reflection sees Tom testing his decision process, cross examining the best approach to gain maximum potential for NorthHouse's future and if the future could be foretold, Tom would choose to know if all the decisions he makes every day is pushing NorthHouse in the correct direction.

"So much of growing a company is making instinctive macro and micro decisions that build into big shifts in the companies direction, and often there simply isn't the time for super-calculated decision-making, it often has to be done on more of an instinctive basis.

I trust my instincts and I know they're formed from years and years of experience, but I also find the routes these decisions can lead us down quite fascinating. I've never been a huge fan of laying out structured long-term plans. I find it so much more important to focus on what your core values are and what the overall vision is. Once this is solid (and of course this also evolves) then those decisions made every day become more fluid and instinctive.

The workflow is constant, and the variety means NorthHouse is able to accept a huge spectrum of clients which keep the teams interest piqued and skill levels exceptional. Tom's enjoyment of his work doesn't just stem from the fact he built the company: "There's so many factors that keep me inspired and passionate about the work we do and the brand I'm developing. I love building a great place for people to create, explore ideas and develop and find amazing and varied projects to work on. I'm always excited in the ideation stages of a project when we're developing the concept, narrative, initial design frames and exploring the technical possibilities.

As a team we're very collaborative and I always push for as many people as possible to gather around the ideas table in the earliest stages. Brainstorming like this with multiple minds combining their design and technology experience leads to creating some amazing results and a great energy in the studio. But I love seeing a project come together in the final stages, whether we're at an empty Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, Dubai Expo or Hollywood Bowl adding the finishing touches to our visuals before thousands or millions of people experience and connect with it days later. This is always truly incredible to experience.

2023 sees NorthHouse in a strong position and the entrepreneur within Tom doesn't allow him to stay still, and embracing new avenues of business is leading to exciting forthcoming projects.

Tom outlined what NorthHouse still has in store for 2023: "We're currently working on a variety of projects globally that branch out from our traditional formats of music and live events. Over the next few months, you'll see such a huge range of projects from us all over the world including the design and creation of interactive installations, immersive experiences, public art installations, brand activations, various music events and artist tours, augmented and virtual reality experiences, and we're even designing a very special private event in Saudi Arabia!"

Entrepreneurial evolution seems to come naturally to Tom, and as NorthHouse rockets towards 2024 with promising new horizons set, Tom can rest assured that NorthHouse is set on the right course to inspire the industry and keep pushing existing boundaries, leading to innovation that will create exciting, progressive and positive change.