Production company Arts & Sciences has added Craig Ainsley to its directorial roster in the U.K. Ainsley comes over from Mother London where he was an award-winning creative director. He will be directing at Arts & Sciences under the moniker Frank Atlantic.
Mother has a track record of brilliant creatives turned directors from Kim Gehrig to Scared Egg, The Bobbsey Twins from Homicide, Raine Anne Miller, and most recently, Humans. This past weekend (2/18), Gehrig–who’s with production company Somesuch–won the DGA Award for commercials.
Ainsley first joined Mother in 2011, where he created award-winning work for Match.com, PG Tips, and MoneySupermarket, before leaving to work on other projects. He returned to Mother in 2019 to work on Dubai Tourism, winning gold at the One Show. Ainsley ran the Uber Rides account during this time and worked across Trainline and Stella Artois. He recently made a special episode of Hey Duggee for Mother’s collaboration with the BBC, where the show welcomed famous Ukrainian animated characters.
During his spell away from Mother, Ainsley worked as a writer on Have I Got News For You on the BBC and as a creative director at Anomaly London, where he created the award-winning Budweiser “Dream Goal” campaign. He also began directing short films, making five Vimeo staff-picked comedy short films in a row. He was signed by Independent Talent and commissioned to write and direct a comedy pilot for Steve Coogan’s production company, Baby Cow. His directing work has been featured on Nowness and BBC 3 and played in competition at the Palm Springs and Austin Film Festivals. Last year his pilot Agency (a sitcom set in advertising) did the rounds amongst agency folk after being featured in the British Comedy Guide, with it being called “scarily accurate and hilarious.”
Now, after also recently directing his first couple of adverts, he’s going full-time with Arts & Sciences.
Arts & Sciences London managing director/partner James Bland said, “Having worked with him many times as a creative director, we began making short films together, with Craig directing his own scripts. It was clear that we’d eventually bring it full circle, and he would sign up to direct with us at Arts & Sciences. To finally be doing this together is brilliant. Craig’s unique voice and wry humor come through in everything he does, and we are thrilled to get the chance to make films together again.”
Ainsley–aka Frank Atlantic–said, “Hello. Send me your most delicious scripts.”
Felix Richter, CCO and creative partner at Mother London, said, “Craig is a brilliant creative and wonderful human, and I couldn’t be more excited about him stretching his creativity into a new dimension. I’m sure it won’t be long before we get to work together again on a delicious script. He will always be part of the Mother family.”
Arts & Sciences opened the doors to its London offices in 2020, led by Bland. Its roster of established directors and up-and-coming talent includes Adam & Dave, Mike Warzin, Sean Meehan, Fiona McGee, Anthony Mandler, Shaniqwa & Raj, Alex Prager, Matt Lenski, Matt Aselton, and The Bobbsey Twins From Homicide. Arts & Sciences also has bases of operation in Los Angeles and New York.
