Ground Control

05/15/25

What is the purpose of Ground Control?

It's essentially a multimedia platform centered on the underground. We are turning creative concepts into living, breathing realities for artists. We try to provide creators with the platform, opportunities, and resources to bring visions to life while staying true to their unique styles. Ground Control isn’t just about media production, it’s about building a creative ecosystem that showcases all types of talent.

via GroundControl, 2025

Does the name have any particular meaning?

It's from David Bowie’s song Space Oddity. “Ground Control to Major Tom. I just thought it would be a sick name, and I think of it as we control the ground, whether it's the ground at the show and we control it with the music, or the ground as the scene in general. Our team is in control of what's going on.

How do you select the members of Ground Control?; What styles and skills are you trying to cover?

Pretty much everything in the book. Creative Directors, Videographers, Editors, Photographers, Animators, Set Designers, Content Writers, Editors, Graphic Designers, Producers, DJs, etc. We want to be the one stop shop for any artist trying to bring their vision to life and have someone on our team who matches that. We are just starting and still expanding but that’s what we aim to be.

via GroundControl, 2025

What is the Ground Control style? What elements of say a video are consistent throughout the groups projects that could be seen and people know it’s them?

Nothing. We don’t have a style, every creator on our team is unique and every artist we work with is unique. When we take on a project we brainstorm it with the artists involved and have it kind of exist in its own reality and be its own entity. Everything you see from us will be completely different, and we dont expect people to know it's a Ground Control video. We just want every artist and project to shine on its own.

What did Ground Control start as? Was it just you?

I’ve always had that name in my mind as something I wanted to bring to life. I’ve been doing videos for a minute and talking with our co-founder (ari) we brainstormed this whole project. She has a lot of experience organizing events so we planned our first Ground Control event and decided it was the perfect launch moment for the whole project. After that event was really successful we started taking on videos and kind of establishing ourselves in the scene. We slowly gathered people that wanted to get involved and built a team from there.

How does Ground Control land its clients? Rather, how did getting clients start in the beginning vs now?

In the beginning it was just friends, local artists we knew, and for the most part it still is. We have a main focus on Chicago because that's where we can organize most of our events, and we want to establish a base city for all our projects, and also want our city and artists here to shine. We are pretty established though to the point that we have people contacting us to get a video done, and we try to spread the work between our team. We’ve been working on a process to make it easier for clients to get their work done by us and all of that will be rolling out this summer.

What does the future of Ground Control look like? (Members, Capabilities, Collaborations, etc.)

I don't want to spoil too much but just know we’re going to be everywhere. Every city, every artist, everywhere. Different types of events, different genres, different niche’s of art, things never seen before. Our team is going to stand out from all the norms and gimmicks. We’re really building something special.

What advice would you give to creatives looking to start getting commissions?

Start slow, start free. Try to work with artists that you know, that your visions align, and really perfect your craft with them. You need to have something to show before you can expect someone’s money. So just be free with it, make sure it's fun for you, and make sure you can let yourself be creative when you work with someone, and at the same time listen to what the artist wants, try to understand their music, ask the questions, do your research, all the references and inspiration, and when you really lock down who you are as a creative, people will come to you naturally, ready to work.

What advice would you give to creatives looking to find people with similar style and tastes?

In person connection is the most important. You have to get along with someone naturally, and things will align. Don’t try to find people with a similar style to you, just make friends, find people you just click with and BUILD that style with them. You can't grow alone and find other people that are already at that point cause then it's all superficial, find a team to grow with and stick with them.

via GroundControl, 2025

What advice would you give to creatives looking to grow a following?

Dont. Don't look for that. Grow yourself, grow your craft, grow your circle. Find something you’re really good at and enjoy doing and grow those talents. Build that portfolio, build yourself as a creative entity. The following comes naturally when you’re just doing what you love and putting it out there. People see that and appreciate it. Don't follow trends or gimmicks. Don’t make “connections”, just be genuine with people. Everybody you look up to was you at some point, and everybody that’s truly successful got there by growing themselves into their best version.

Why do you keep going?

Honestly everyone else,
all our members, friends, collaborators, and inspirations.
We all just keep going, we see each other doing awesome things individually and it inspires us to keep up.
I personally just want to create, it's just fun to keep making things and coming up with new ideas and testing the limits of what we can do. I want to experiment with every type of art medium and just see what we can come up with. and combining everyones talents and ideas is the best way to make truly meaningful art