Broadway Video Design, a division of New York-based Broadway Video Entertainment (BVE), has folded and will be replaced by Imbue Studio, a broadcast design and live-action production company that will focus on TV and entertainment-industry marketing. Imbue’s slate will include programming and network identity packaging; titles for films and television; and development and production of print support materials for marketing projects.
Noreen O’Donnell will be executive creative director of Imbue, the same position she held at Broadway Video Design. O’Donnell was hired in January to launch Imbue but initially worked under the Broadway Video Design banner.
"[Broadway Video Design] had really evolved out of the facility side of the [Broadway Video Entertainment] business," O’Donnell explained about why the division was closed. "We are now re-launching a more full-service, strategic executional studio."
O’Donnell noted that Imbue intends to take a design-driven tack to entertainment marketing. "Our mission is to develop, create and produce the [entertainment] industry’s most conceptually and aesthetically stimulating broadcast design and live-action productions for leading entertainment firms," said O’Donnell. "We have the mandate to raise the broadcast design bar strategically." O’Donnell described Imbue as a "hybrid boutique consultancy service" that she hoped would develop "ongoing partnerships" with clients.
Imbue currently has a staff of 17, and O’Donnell plans to make a half dozen more hires before the end of the year. The company will not be limited to using other divisions of BVE to finish projects. "In the world of design, you can’t possibly have all the solutions for every execution that you can dream up under one roof," O’Donnell observed.
"There is a great opportunity to prosper by producing breakthrough work for the marketplace whose current design alternatives reflect either the monolithic 800-pound gorillas or two-guys-in-a-garage outfits," O’Don-nell noted. "At Imbue, we intend to fill this void while maintaining a sense of humor and a witty, mischievous brand personality."
Before moving to Broadway Video Design, O’Donnell was VP/executive producer from ’96-’98 in the New York office of bicoastal/international Pittard Sullivan. Prior to that, O’Donnell was executive producer at Brian Diecks Design, New York, from ’94-’95. She held several positions, including marketing communications writer and manager of interactive design at MTV Networks from ’89-’94.
New personnel at Imbue include director/designer Hugo Cariss and art director Gary Keenan. Cariss created title sequences and on-air promotions as a staff member for the U.K.’s Channel 1. Keenan worked at Caboom Creative Group, Dublin, from ’98-’99 and earlier redesigned the on-air look of the U.K.’s Channel 4, while working as a senior designer at the channel from ’94-’98. Sharon Haskell, who had been a designer/ director at Broadway Video Design for 12 years, will also be on staff at Imbue. Her work includes main titles, program packaging, and network branding projects for MTV, NBC and Nickelodeon.
