If you’re into hip hop, you know who Lupe Fiasco is.

And if you’re local and into design, you most likely know who Illusive Media is. If not, you ought to. In the past, the team–which consistently includes Shomi Patwari, Philip Ly, Paolo Obcemane, Charley Feher and Robert Simmons–dabbled in music videos, but their bread and butter seemed to be a multitude of flashy-looking websites and pimped-out celebrity myspace pages. Recently, however, they made a big leap with a Haiti relief video called “Resurrection,” in collaboration with the recording artist Kenna.

The strength of that video opened doors for the team to work with hip hop stars David Banner and 9th Wonder (on a forthcoming video yet to be released), and currently Lupe Fiasco.

The Lupe video, for his brand new single “I’m Beamin’”, dropped yesterday. The New York Post called it “a breath of fresh air.”

We spoke to Illusive’s co-director and video effects genius, Robert Simmons, about the project (watch it just below to get some context for our Q&A) and how he got to be working on such great gigs.

The video is extremely slick and professional. Congratulations.

Thank you. I think I speak for the team in saying that im pretty proud of the video.

What was your title on set? What exactly were you responsible for on this video?

For this, I have a co-direction credit, mainly due to the fact that part of the treatment was dependent on whatever I came up with post. The role was visual effects. The effects served as some sorta complementary treatment to the play. Can I just go ahead and segue into the treatment?

Please do.

So we knew early on that we didn’t want it to be all just effects in post. We wanted something organic, something captured in the camera that would make it stand out. ShomI came across someone using a cardboard castle for inspiration for the play. We would do a good part of the performance as a school play.

We weren’t quite sure what we would do for post, the song is “im Beamin’” so you can not help but think of some play on light. Even if it would come off somewhat indulgent.

So the treatment was sent off and approved. But of course theres a catch: He wants to shoot in six days. So all the props had to put together within a week. In honesty, I did not have a detailed outline of what were shooting until the night before.

You guys (Illusive) also put together the Pepsi/Pharrell website in like six days time. Do you think you work best under pressure?

I would say so. A lot of our best work had such time constraints. Even the Haiti video was a rush.

So at the shoot, we had certain props for certain parts of the song. The rest was performance. Most of what I came up effects-wise were things I observed at the shoot–how the sets looked in the composition, Lupe’s gestures, and so forth. Things like: oh, theres a rocket; wouldn’t it be neat if there was a flame coming out of the rocket. And his arm movements there are perfect for a stroke of light.

Another variable was the lite brights, which served as a good anchor for some of the various lighting effects. Now, of course the lite brite didn’t come into the mail until like a few days before we had to send the video off. I think I failed to mentioned the final deadline for post was pushed up a couple weeks too.

Going back to the process–we had a lot of performance scenes to play with. The play scenes would receive enhancements. In some cases, no effects at all. In some cases, less is more. We were careful not too overdo it.

Oh side note–funny, if you add a pyramid and/or eye to your video, you’ll have hundreds of conspiracy theory comments on your video.

I noticed the youtube comments. What do you have to say in response?

Your cool.

Ha. Nice. Can you talk about the transition from web design to video?

Sure. It’s almost like going back full circle. First, when jumping into graphic design four or so years ago, I actually thought the motion graphics I saw in videos was done in Flash, which it’s not. So I jumped into Flash thinking this app was responsible for some things it’s not. Inspired in the wrong direction. But as I got more into web design, I started to have an appreciation for it. Plus it was getting me work. And you can do a lot of cool things with it.

Let’s go ahead and fast forward to around ’09. Illusive was still primarily a web company at the time. The web was changing. People weren’t as interested in the complex interactivity and were more interested in content management. At the time, I adapted, I learned Javascript, CSS, and familiarized myself with WordPress to the point I made my own templates.

But some of the fun was lost along the way, at least for me. This wasn’t what I signed up for some time ago. I still have a soft spot for code and web design, but I lost interest in doing it commercially, at least as a freelancer. So in between web gigs, I’d find animation gigs.

Just like what I’ve done in web design in the past, each project would have a completely different solution forcing me to learn a lot each gig.

Early this year two things happened.

a) I got a job with WTKR, so now I can be extremely selective of what I work on.

b) Shomi contacted me about working on the “Resurrection” video. He saw the past few things I’ve done and could use the expertise and work on this video–especially with the time frame. And since then, I haven’t touched a website, save for a few favors for friends.

How did you learn the skills you’re applying in this media?

A combination between working in 3D, Flash, video editing, and Photoshop. I already had an in-depth understanding of timelines, keyframes, layer compositing. With web, I learned how to teach myself: constant familiarizing myself with the program, online tutorials, forums, reading articles, and of course, knowing someone like Gene (friend, collaborator and WTKR art director) who has a wealth of experience with this craft in particular.

All those combined, I would say it’s fair I caught up fast. I had to learn quickly to make it in the web world, and that understanding that you have to learn a lot quick has stuck with me.

You’ve had you’re hand in fine art, graphic design, web design and now video. What do you think is your true craft, if any?

It’s hard. I think a convergence of those will be the most fulfilling. I have much more to learn and I’d like to be able to animate drawings I’ve done with pastels and scanned then Photoshopped some. I honestly like to challenge myself more with visual effects and compositing. But I would also like to get more into illustration and combine the two.

As someone who appreciates hip hop, what does it mean to you to be able to work with artists like Lupe Fiasco, David Banner and 9th Wonder?

It’s great honestly. David Banner was awesome to work with. And what can I say about 9th? I mean, so much of what I listened to in hip hop in the 2000s was produced by him.

It’s one thing to work with artists that you pretend to like because they’re your clients; it’s another thing to work with artists you do like. And then to work with artists you like who have already made it, and they’re giving you that chance to work with them–it’s a great feeling.

What was Lupe like to work with?

Lupe was really cool. He was a little more distant than Banner and 9th. When you talk to him, you’ll be surprised how humble he is. He seems real appreciative of his fans.

It was surreal, I mean I was fan of his since Fahrenheit 1/15. But he was a bit reserved

What films or music videos have inspired you?

Hmm. I really liked “Nothing Like This” by J Dilla. I really liked the underwater look in Life Aquatic. I liked the look of Big Fish. The look of the environments in Little Big Planet and Yoshi’s Island (video games). I love the look of The Informant.

How would you describe your aesthetic?

Right now, it’s all over the place, I’m still learning the craft so I haven’t quite refined a style. Each thing looks drastically different from the previous work. I have some treatments set aside that I put together as my style–hopefully some time this year I get to test them out.

Your effects in the Lupe video I can see as being descendant from your graphic design style.

Yeah, I definitely blended in light the way I would in a photo or graphic. I’m very particular about that.

We’ve talked before about what a good moment you’re having professionally right now. Do you feel like you’re hitting your stride?

I think I hit some momentum, but I have to mindful that we’ve had and lost this momentum in the past. This time is a little different, though. We all have a better understanding of what we want as team. And as me as an individual. I’m comfortable being selective and back to sacrificing sleep to make sure what I do work on is right.