Digital design/ visual effects/production house Charlex has launched Grain, a company that will specialize in developing commercials for the Internet, wireless and interactive TV venues. Grain is housed within Charlex’s Midtown Manhattan facility.
Alex Weil, founder/creative director at Charlex, holds the same titles at Grain. He is assembling a Grain team, which thus far includes interactive designers Erik Karasyk and Jeff Stevens, graduates of the Savannah College of Art and Design. The duo is experienced in the use of Flash in combination with 3D Studio Max and assorted other animation programs. Additionally, Grain plans to hire an executive producer.
Grain’s prime goal is to make interactive technology "invisible" to advertisers and agency creatives. "We hope to streamline the production process so that our agency clientele will be able to work on projects for the Internet with the same ease that they currently create television commercials," said Weil. "We have the tools, the wherewithal and the experience to do that."
Weil also provides a measure of continuity, in that agencies can hire Grain to develop Internet spot work under the same creative direction they’ve become accustomed to at Charlex, translating into integrated branding for on-air and online campaigns. Grain will provide design services for Web sites, as well.
The seeds for Grain were planted when Charlex did a re-design for the AOL Moviefone Web site, helping to bring about a significant increase in consumer hits. "After Moviefone, we realized it was important to extend our business and open a new division with a completely separate focus," related Weil.
"In many instances, a Web commercial will be very similar to its TV counterpart—but there are key differences to respect when developing advertising for these media," Weil observed. "For example, it’s less effective for a Web commercial to bombard a user with a soundtrack, so instead you may want to create a version using animated graphics to get the message across. You can also enable users to directly respond or somehow participate in the ads."
Charlex’s TV commercial credits include work for IBM, Kodak, American Express, Lucent, Qwest and Budweiser. Among recent endeavors are campaigns for Kotex, BP and NFL.com, the Sprint spots featuring Sela Ward, and the "talking George Washington" ads for the U.S. Mint.
