'Minority Report' elevates design shop. (Media & Technology).

There's a kids-in-the-candy-store enthusiasm when the creative team from Imaginary Forces talks about collaborating with Steven Spielberg on the much-discussed "previsions" sequences in his latest feature, "Minority Report"

Over the course of 14 months, Kurt Mattila and Matt Checkowski -- nicknamed "Black & Decker" by Spielberg -- worked side-by-side with the famed director, piecing together the psychic dream clips that foreshadow twists and turns in the movie's plot.

It was a career-changing experience for the pair of twentysomethings, two of the rising stars at the six-year-old design and production house that's riding a wave of demand for its services.

"Spielberg came to the company and said, 'We have an idea for these prevision sequences.' He said, 'I'd love to see what you guys can do,"' said Checkowski, art director at Imaginary Forces.

For the "Minority Report" sequences, Mattila and Checkowski were charged with creating a visual representation of the human thought process. They would film the scenes and edit them according to the script. The sequences were then presented to Spielberg who would either sign off or ask them to try again. Once the final footage was agreed upon, Mattila and Checkowski returned to their editing tools to add the final design elements, such as changing color or lighting and manipulating the focus to better represent the dream-like quality of the sequences.

Imaginary is known for provocative opening and closing title sequences on "Seven," "Men in Black," "The Mummy" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Its title work jumpstarts the action in "Spider-Man" and "Men in Black II."

Imaginary also is involved in television commercials, music videos, graphic design and the design of corporate work environments.

"We've done well in phase one, which was to establish ourselves and create a body of work we can be proud of," said Peter Frankfurt, who founded Imaginary in 1996 with Kyle Cooper and Chip Houghton. "Phase two is to expand the company and grow in all of these areas while also creating more content, which has been an ambition since we started the company."

Imaginary evolved out of the West Coast offices of New York-based design firm Robert Greenberg Associates, which employed all three of the founders. Greenberg Associates was acquired by Toronto-based True North Advertising, which shortly thereafter sold the Los Angeles office to the Imaginary trio for about $900,000.

"It was a terrific deal because True North said they wanted to shut that part of the company down," Cooper said. "Basically, we said, 'We'll take it off your hands.'"

At the time of the sale, Imaginary had 35 employees and $9 million in revenues. Without additional financing, the company has grown to more than 80 employees. Revenues were in the low $20 millions last year, Frankfurt said.

Much of the initial momentum stemmed from raves garnered for the chilling opening titles for the psychological thriller "Seven," which was done by Cooper even before the company was formed. "Some of that success was the basis for founding the company," Cooper said. "A lot of work came out of that:'

But the success of "Seven" proved to be a double-edged sword, Frankfurt said. "It caught the public imagination in a way that's very rare for (a title sequence). But in a way, we're still living down 'Seven.' It pigeonholed us. For a while everybody knew us as the 'dark, creepy guys."'

"Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi said he wanted to create a "visual ride" with the opening titles that would emphasize the contrast between Spider Man and his human counterpart, Peter Parker.

"We approached Imaginary Forces with the idea of developing larger-than-life titles to introduce our superhero, and they delivered," Raimi said in an e-mail.

Imaginary has an office in New York but the bulk of the operation is located on two crowded floors of a Spanish courtyard building on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Unlike other design shops, where creative employees tend to stick to a specialty, Imaginary's partners encourage their designers to work across media, from logo design to animation. The company is organized into shifting creative teams made up of individuals who tend to work well together.

"Ideally, 'Minority Report' will mark the beginning of a lot more content work within the body of films' Cooper said.