Four 3rds Creative
Karen and Michael Ryan stand next to their creation at the College of Science and Engineering.
The ideal of a university shaping one’s destiny — if destiny would permit such a thing — is not just some timeworn, hackneyed phrase for Michael and Karen Ryan.
TCU indeed was the platform for their professional and personal fulfillment.
They met as part of a team working on a group project in the radio/TV and film department, then later married, and then later joined forces to open a marketing company Four 3rds Creative, which specializes in video-based storytelling.
“After a while, I wore her down and she decided I was worth spending more time with,” Michael joked during a phone conversation.
Always best to marry above one’s station. Or in the parlance of the day, to overachieve.
The couple recently celebrated their 20th anniversary as man and wife and 15th as co-owners of the business by going back to where they met to do something extraordinarily cutting edge for the alma mater’s 150th birthday.
What they came up with was perhaps a defining moment for the company.
Four 3rds Creative, in collaboration with Wheelhouse Innovations, built and installed an eight-foot interactive augmented reality experience — which doubles as a piece of art — that was met by very inquisitive visitors to the College of Science and Engineering building for the university’s Family Weekend last weekend.
“When we were first contacted about this challenge, we weren’t exactly sure what we were going to do, but we were all in,” said Michael. “After talking it through, we determined that we needed two things: an installation that was totally unique to draw people’s curiosity and a captivating experience with the capacity to engage everyone simultaneously.”
Michael Ryan was effusive in his admiration for the work of Wheelhouse Innovation and its chief technology officer Mitch Ansara. “That’s really when the possibilities opened up endlessly for us” on the project, Michael said.
The centerpiece of the installation is an eight-foot sculpture in the shape of the College of Science and Engineering's logo. Visitors can use their smartphones to animate the sculpture, making it come to life with videos and interactive content unique to each department of the college.
Officials at the school have boasted that the installation “will serve as a lasting symbol of TCU's dedication to providing engaging educational experiences and its vibrant future.”
Four 3rds will be able to take the technology and do more of the same for other clients, said Karen, who grew up in nearby Kennedale.
“This is a full-circle moment for us as TCU alumni,” said Karen, who shares two sons, ages 13 and 9, with Michael. “We're thrilled to be part of TCU's 150th anniversary celebration and to work on a project that combines technology, creativity, and education. Michael and I met as college students, so TCU has always been a part of our story. It’s very special for us to get to be a part of this celebration.”
The couple’s career trajectories were headed in separate ways out of college. Michael’s forte was and is on the creative front end, generating content mostly behind a camera. Karen’s is as an editor on the backend.
Michael said he already had clients as a freelancer in college and only picked up more immediately out of college, while Karen went to work for Pier 1 before moving to an independent feature film post-production facility in Dallas.
Layoffs at Pier 1 in 2007 brought together two couples, Michael and Karen, and Kevin and Tara Peet. Michael was already freelancing for Pier 1 and the Peets had been impacted by that company’s decision to lay off its video production unit.
Rather than do everything in-house, Pier 1 outsourced all of its video work to freelancers. The two couples came together to form a company with all the Pier 1 work and more.
Each was the third son or daughter of their family, so, Four 3rds was born.
“We grew over the years and worked with a lot of different things,” said Michael, who grew up in El Paso.
Four 3rds Creative
The curious were instantly attracted to the display outside the College of Science and Engineering.
A couple of years in to the endeavor, the Peets wanted to do something different. The Ryans bought them out.
“We kind of just created our own style of doing things, I guess,” said Michael, describing the essential motivation for many who go out on their own to start a business. “We had both worked kind of freelance and for a bunch of different people. We had an idea of how we didn't want things to be, [how we wanted] to run our company and how we wanted to work in this creative realm with people and really kind of shepherd and guide people. That's kind of the approach that we've always had.”
They have worked with a number of nonprofits and, more recently, clients in education, like TCU. The College of Science and Engineering called to inquire about Four 3rds doing some work for the 150th, Michael said.
“They said, ‘Hey, we saw this video of people interacting with a banner at South by Southwest and we want to do something cool like that,’” Michael recalled. “I said, ‘I agree. That does sound awesome.’”
And like TCU, the end work was representative of the vibrant future the company has, too.