121 Studios

This summer, we invite you to work out of 121 Studios every other Thursday on a biweekly basis from 9am-5pm for FREE, starting Thursday, July 9th!

Bring your project or laptop and work alongside 121 Studios’ creative community of entrepreneurs, visual artists, illustrators, video game developers, and photographers. Enjoy access to shared desk space, high speed internet, fresh coffee, and more!

Open Coworking Thursdays Summer Schedule July 23 August 6 & 20 September 3 & 17

Check out photos from recent open coworking days:

Photography Portfolio Review Session, with LondonFUSE.

Guests enjoying shared desk space for working on visual art projects and digital photo editing.

NoR Apparel capturing photos of their amazing clothing line and accessories.

Luis and Jason discussing the finer points of flash animation.

Get out of your home office or local coffee shop and work alongside 121 Studio’s creative community for an entire week!

121 Studios, downtown London’s newest coworking and media production space, is opening its doors to the public from June 1-5. From 9am-5pm each day, you are invited to work out of the space at no cost, and with no commitment. Register here to reserve a spot for the week.

This is a great opportunity to experience what creative coworking is all about. Work alongside a creative community of artists, entrepreneurs, illustrators, graphic designers, music producers, and photographers. Enjoy access to shared desk space, high speed internet, fresh coffee, and resources for audio, video, photography and more!

Space is limited! Register now to reserve your spot for the week

Members of 121 Studios in the Press: Antony Hare | Allyson Proulx | Savanah Sewell.

We're pleased to announce the launch of our brand new photo studio, which is fully equipped with...

LED studio lights

Studio light stands

Black and white umbrellas

Umbrella-to-stand holder

5-in-1 reflector

Black, grey, white, and green paper backdrops

Backdrop stand

Portrait photography soft box with florescent lights

Not even one month in and we've already had several photographers use the studio to capture amazing photos. 

Check out, for example, these enchanting portraits produced in our studio by photographer Mark Ruddick.

Photographer: Mark Ruddick Model: Julia Rose Makeup: Melissa Hair: Kristina

121 Studios member Allyson Proulx uses our portrait photography soft box, ideal for product photography, to capture photos of her lovely, handmade cards:

Photographer: Allyson Proulx | Lefty Smudges Order Occasion Cards from Lefty Smudges' Etsy Store

Interested in using the photo studio?

Go to 121studios.ca to learn about our membership and daypass options.

E-mail 121studios[at]unlondon[dot]ca to sign up, inquire, or schedule a tour of the space!  

Want to learn more about studio photography? 

Sign up for our Introduction to Studio Photography class, scheduled for January 28, 6:30-8:30pm. Click here to RSVP and learn more about the workshop. 

Introducing Episode #2 of Creative London, a podcast series presented by UnLondon's 121 Studios, which explores the practices and principles that guide the work of London's foremost creative talent.

For our second episode, we spoke with visual artist Thea Yabut. Since 2006, Thea's art has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Canada and the United Kingdom. As a contributor to the London arts community, Thea presents artist talks and workshops around the city, and is the Gallery manager at DNA Artspace.

Creative London is a new podcast series presented by UnLondon and 121 Studios, which explores the practices, opinions, and principles that guide the work of London's foremost creative talent.

Our first episode features local music producer and community stalwart Adam Sturgeon. 

Over the past 15 years, Adam has released a slew of amazing music releases on his label, Out of Sound. His band Whoop-szo has toured extensively and released full length recordings that feature a stellar mix of psych, folk, noise-pop, and haunting atmospherics. 

Through Out of Sound, Adam also administers a series of community outreach initiatives for Aboriginal and Inuit youth, including the Out of Sound Rezonance Program and Salluit Screens. He is the music director for both the Winter Spectacular and Grickle Grass Festival. 

During WordsFest we opened the doors of our sound studio to the community, and invited guests to participate in a fun word association game. We displayed five best seller novels to our visitors & asked them to describe their reactions to the covers in their own words.

The activity was recorded, and subsequently edited and produced into a Podcast, in our very own sound studio. Listen below, and be sure to look at the accompanying photo which features the books used in the game. 

Check back regularly, as we'll be uploading more podcasts in the coming weeks.

After six weeks of planning, construction, and sourcing materials and equipment, we are pleased to reveal details about our sound studio! 

The new studio facility is a revisioning of the former UnLab Podcast studio, which has served our members well for over four years. Many memories, stories, and inspiring discussions about the various innovative projects developed by UnLab members have been recorded and shared online, thanks to this wonderful facility. 

In building the studio, we sourced many of the structural and sound-proofing materials from the UnLab Podcast studio, including steel studs, drywall, sound absorption panels, and hardware. 

This is a shot of the studio during its initial construction phase. As you can see, we nailed steel studs to the floor, in order to put up a wall that separates the studio from the rest of our space. 

Next, we applied sound absorption panels to every square inch of the interior. 

We then built a wall and framed a door to isolate the studio from the rest of the space. 

After mudding, sanding, and painting the drywall, we went to work on the interior design. First, we covered the green acoustic panels with black fabric. After a thorough cleaning, we rolled out a vintage area rug, set up equipment, and installed our recording hardware and software. Check out its current state:

A few days later, one of our members recorded a fabulous jazz trio in the studio. The group featured upright bass, electric piano, and vocals, and they recorded live off the floor with our 12 channel mixer. They played stunning renditions of jazz standards, such as "Fly Me To The Moon" and "The Girl From Ipanema". Here's a photo from the session:

Our 12 channel Mackie mixer connects via firewire to our 27" iMac, which is presently equipped with Logic Pro and GarageBand recording software. You can also connect the mixer to your personal laptop, providing it has a firewire port. 

After all the hard work we've put into building this studio, it was truly inspiring for us to witness its value unfold during this memorable session. We hope for many more sessions such as this from members in the community. We will continue to develop the space, by adding new equipment and software, and responding to members' feedback.

If you wish to record in our sound studio please email charles[at]unlondon[dot]ca for more information. Regardless of proficiency level or prior experience, we implore you to visit our sound studio and explore the world of audio production. 

We should also mention there's an awesome concert happening November 14, featuring HSY, The Beverley's, Whoop-Szo, and I Smell Blood. Steam Whistle, the event sponsor, is generously donating the profits to 121 Studios to help us further develop our sound studio.

RSVP via Facebook. We'd love to see you there! 

UnLondon is committed to employing eco-friendly solutions in developing 121 Studios. We built six sawhorse tables, for example, out of discarded doors and lumber, which were generously donated to us by the good folks at Universal Construction in London (Thanks, Todd!). Here is a photo of two refinished and newly painted doors, repurposed into table tops for creative co-working.

Here's a photo of the first completed sawhorse table in use at 121 Studios.

And now we are arranging these tables in pairs to enable group work, like so:

Welcome to the 121 Studios blog, where we will be documenting the implementation and development of UnLondon's latest project, a 2800 square-foot media arts co-creation workspace in the heart of downtown London, Ontario! Read more about our plans for the space here.

Here is a photo of the empty space taken from the main entrance. 

Check back soon to watch and read about our ongoing progress! xo.

UPDATE: Oct 29, 2014:

Here's what the space looks like now...