Director/designer and artist Greg Barth has signed exclusively with CoMPANY Films for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branding work. Barth, who hails from Geneva, Switzerland, and resides in London, is probably best known for applying design to advertising using physical effects, bringing to life surreal concepts for brands such as McDonald’s, Twizzlers, WIXX, Mail Chimp, ESPN, Subway and L’Oreal. Barth is also currently directing an ambitious experiential project for a major online multi-player game.
“Greg has such a unique voice as a director, whether it’s his spots, his shorts or his music videos — how could we not sign him?” said CoMPANY executive producer Ron Cicero. “He has a solid history working in the ad space as a designer, And he’s super charming. It was a no-brainer, Richard (CoMPANY EP Goldstein) and I immediately fell in love with him.”
Barth–who earlier had been repped in the U.S. ad arena by Ruffian–wants to set the tone for brands using his love of applying in-camera effects that further the creative. “I have a curious soul, I create worlds with practical effects,” said Barth, who won the Young Director Award at Cannes in 2014. “My work has evolved into bringing actors into these quirky, colorful worlds. Early on I moved away from animation and computer graphics towards a viewpoint of weird comedy brought to life with technical knowledge. It evolved into many scenarios featuring stop motion, but it has really grown from there.”
Barth points to recent spots like one titled, “Groceries,” for Twizzlers that shows his prowess working actors into the mix. “We’re not talking good-looks casting here, we’re talking amazing faces, people my mom would say have lots of character,” he says. “The conversation usually begins with an open brief from agency creatives. Comedy with a visual twist. We go from there.”
The director began his career by earning a graphic design degree from Ecole des Arts Appliques and a diploma from NAD Center in visual effects. In addition to directing spots, short films and music videos, for the last 12 years Barth has headed up gregbarth.tv, his own quirky and experimental online content channel.
