How Sandwich scales standout creative with LucidLink

Meet Sandwich

Since 2009, Sandwich have made commercials that explain products in a way that helps viewers learn something new. They’re the de facto creative studio for Silicon Valley, launching countless startups that have exploded into giants and skyrocketed brands that are in our daily lives. 

Introduction 

Sandwich is a creative agency that punches above its weight. With just 15 people total — and only four in post-production — they create around 50 campaigns a year for a client list that reads like a who’s who of modern tech. Think Slack, Salesforce, Apple, Perplexity and, of course, LucidLink.

Their secret? They're "an ad agency of tech fans" who've built their entire workflow around smart automation and seamless collaboration. Because when you're all about explaining complex products simply, you need your tools to be just as elegant.

We talked to Chief Post Officer, Zach Hobesh, and VFX Supervisor, Dan Sturm, to hear how the team has created a production model that scales, without the chaos.

Want to get straight to the action? Here's Sandwich explaining how they use LucidLink, in a way only they can.

The challenge: scaling creative (without scaling headaches)

Here's the thing about being a small but mighty creative team. Everyone wears multiple hats, projects constantly overlap and there's zero margin for hunting around for that file. Sandwich knew this reality all too well.

Pre-pandemic, they worked off a traditional NAS setup. When remote work hit, they initially moved to Dropbox — but quickly hit the walls of sync sharing systems.

"We made it work, but it was chaos," explains Zach. "No one really knew what everybody else had. You'd ask 'where's that thing?' and get back 'I don't know, where did you put it?'"

The team knew they needed something that felt like working in the same room, even when they weren't. To build automation on top, they also needed predictable file structures and reliable access for everyone.

The solution: treating cloud storage like local infrastructure

Sandwich replaced Dropbox with LucidLink — and treated it like the NAS they used to love, just accessible from anywhere.

"LucidLink mounts as a drive on your computer," Dan explains. "Everyone has the same files in the same places. The consistency and predictability is essential for building any sort of workflow on top of it."

This foundation empowered the team to enforce strict naming conventions and project templates across all freelancers and team members. That reliable base let them start automating the parts of post nobody wants to do manually.

Automation that actually works

With LucidLink providing consistent file paths across all machines, the team built custom tools that eliminate busywork:

The publish tool: one Slack command replaces a half-dozen manual steps. automatically uploads cuts from LucidLink to Dropbox, updates their project database and sends links back to the team — all with one slash command.

Automated VFX setup: when a project moves from offline to online, their system creates individual folders for every shot, generates reference files, creates thumbnails and even builds Nuke compositions pre-configured with the right color spaces and render settings.

"Artists just open the comp and do their work," says Dan. "They don't have to tell it where to go or what format to put it in. It's just built."

The results: more shots, faster onboarding, flexible creativity

Big efficiency gains

The results? Pretty great:

• Significantly more VFX shots completed in typical two-week windows

• Smoother freelancer onboarding — new team members can jump in and start working with minimal hand-holding

• 50 campaigns per year with just four core post-production team members

Creative flexibility until the final moment

Perhaps most importantly, their streamlined workflow means they can keep creating right up until the final moment. There’s no need to compromise creatively just because the tech can’t keep up.

"We're not locked on anything until we deliver the project," Dan explains. "We've built our setup so that if it's delivery day and we decide we need to rethink something, we can tackle that without wanting to bang our heads against the wall."

This isn't chaos. It's about having the infrastructure to support how great creative work actually happens: iteratively, collaboratively and often right down to the wire.

Scaling without complexity

The workflow also makes it easier to bring on additional freelancers when projects overlap. Since everyone accesses the same organized file structure, adding capacity doesn't require extensive training or hand-holding.

"Since there's less friction to hiring freelancers, we're more likely to bring on additional help," notes Zach. "That speeds up projects and encourages us to work with more people."

Building creative infrastructure that actually scales

Sandwich proves that small creative teams can compete with larger shops — not by working longer hours, but by working smarter.

Their approach combines reliable cloud infrastructure with custom automation and strict organizational standards with creative flexibility. The result? A post-production workflow that scales efficiently while maintaining the quality and agility that defines great creative work.

"Whatever can be automated, do it," Zach summarizes, "so that we can focus on actually doing the comp or the creative work — not tracking down mistakes or hunting for files."

For creative teams ready to scale without the chaos, that might be the smartest advice of all.

Want to scale your workflow without the stress? Start your free LucidLink trial today.