Production designer and VJ Vello Virkhaus says “being a doctor and being an artist are probably two of the hardest things we could do in our lives”.

Vello took time out of working on electronic dance group Krewella's set in Los Angeles to talk about his upcoming keynote speech at the inaugural Music+Design conference at Bigsound.

“I will focus on experience design, electronic music and the electronic music environment. I'm planning on presenting our Krewella project as a case study showing the process — a pencil sketch, a Google search, people meeting in a cafe to where I'm standing now is an interesting process.”

With a long career as a production designer, successful director/ VJ and founder of V Squared Labs, Virkhaus certainly has a story or two. “I wear a few hats,” he says.

Vello's line of work has seen him direct and perform the visual compositions for a long list of the biggest names in music industry including The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police and Jay-Z.

He created audio reactive visuals for Coldplay's 'Speed Of Sound' music video — which was nominated for the 2005 MTV Best Visual FX Award — and currently has his sights set on his 15th year of the Ultra Music Festival.

“Everything's come out well. I guess my batting average has worked out well. I haven't struck out yet.”

Growing up, Vello was always interested in the fine arts and studied with his grandfather, a gallery owner, before going on to graduate The School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago with a BFA specialising in art and technology studies.

“I was really interested in painting and more traditional fine art up until late high school and then I started exploring animation. I didn't know what major I wanted to have back in the day. I went multimedia for a while and got more and more interested in video in the college years,” he says.

When he moved to Los Angeles in 2002 to set up V Squared Labs, he had no idea what it would become.

“I felt like there was an opportunity going with what I like to do, which has just expanded into a much larger business model than I ever expected. When I moved I came to pursue my career as a director and I was always really interested in music work and so the company grew from that, and now it's a lot more than just me.”

Currently V Squared Labs work closely with both the music industry and commercial companies boasting clients from Coachella and The Grammy Amplifier Lounge to McAfee Security.

“The more experimental electronic work has really landed us the most opportunities. I think it's really inspirational. Through innovative music focus we've been able to branch into some more commercial projects which has been fantastic and unexpected.”

His advice for anyone wanting to break into the industry is: “If you're going to do this art work then just do it because you really love it because if you don't  get great satisfaction out if it then you should definitely not bother. Get another job that you don't think about all the time and that doesn't take as much dedication. We're always pushing the boundaries whether it’s new software or new techniques.”

Bigsound Music+Design takes place September 10-11.