Why I make what I make

Everything I make, I make for the way I work.

That's the whole thing. Every product in the Gelatin catalog exists because I hit a problem on set that nothing on the market solved well, or the thing that was closest cost three times what it should have, or looked like it belonged on a construction site.

So I built the version I wanted.

Where it started

The first thing I made was a carbon fibre sunshade for the Accsoon Power Cage Pro II. I had one on set, the sun was blowing out the screen, and there was no shade available for that specific cage. I posted a photo of the one I'd made in a workshop. Every digital tech I knew wanted one.

That happened again with the next problem. And the one after that.

Fifteen years of working in photography had given me a long list of complaints about the gear I was using every day. I'd started as a studio assistant in London and worked my way up on international fashion campaigns. I'd used just about every accessory brand there is. Some were great. Most were built by people who didn't work on set, priced by people who didn't have to buy them from their own wages, and designed by people who'd never had to pack a cart into a case for a 6am flight.

The gap between "designed for" and "designed by" someone actually in the room was where Gelatin came from.

The way I actually work

The reason this matters is that not all digital tech work is the same. There's a big, respectable world of studio-based digital techs — people working on permanent carts in fixed studios, doing high-volume commercial and advertising work. I've been there.  The gear can be heavy. It can be elaborate. Once built, it's not made to run and gun.

That's no longer my world.

Today I work location. And a lot of my work is for Inditex, which is one of the fastest-moving production environments there is. On a Zara shoot, we might do three or four company moves in a single 14 hour day. Set up in the morning, shoot, break down, drive, set up again, shoot, break down, drive, set up again. If your cart is a fifteen-minute build every time, you're the reason the shoot is running late.

Then it goes on a plane. Then it goes through customs. Then it gets rebuilt in a hotel corridor, or on a beach, or in a warehouse two hours from anywhere. Every gram matters when you're flying it. Every second matters when you're building it before the first shot.

So the design brief for everything I make isn't "how do we make this good" — it's

— How fast can I pack it down?

— How fast can I set it back up?

— Does it fit in the travel kit?

— Can it survive a real production week?

— Is it lighter and better than what's on the market?

— Does it still look and feel like it belongs on a serious set?

Light and compact, without compromising on quality or design. That's the whole design philosophy in a sentence.

Every product answers those questions before I ship it.

Why this makes for different products

I have to fly with everything, so the aluminium is CNC and precisely thin — not chunky billets. I set up in a hurry three times a day, so everything is modular — you build what the job needs, not one giant permanent thing. I care what the set looks like, so everything is anodised, bead-blasted, and considered as a design object, not just a functional part. And I still buy my own gear, so I know what things should cost — which is why I sell direct.

What's in the catalog now

Right now Gelatin makes CNC aluminium iPad cheeseplates, Digiplates for laptops, carbon fibre sunshades for monitors and iPads, tether locking systems, cable management hardware, router mounts, and modular digiplate accessories. Plus Toolbox, my online software platform, which is still in development but coming together with dozens of users.

Every product started with a specific problem I ran into on set. There's a story behind each one, and I'll be writing those up as blog posts over the coming months. If you want to know why a particular piece exists, that's where the answers will be.

If you're working the same way I do

If you're a DIT, a Digitech, a photo assistant, a commercial photographer, or a fashion crew member — if your work travels, if you build and break down often, if you care what your setup looks like as much as how it functions — then Gelatin is built for you. Have a look around, and let me know if there's something you need that I haven't made yet.

— Tomás
Founder, Gelatin