Postproduction facility Slingshot, New York, has added 3-D designer Marc Florestant, who takes on a staff position after freelancing for the company.
Florestant’s most recent in-house position was at City Lights Media Group, New York, where he worked as a computer animator on projects for clients including Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and MetLife.
According to Slingshot VP/ executive producer Stephen Ashkinos, it was Gary Goldstein, head of the graphics department at Slingshot, who brought Florestant to the company’s attention.
"Florestant brings a lot to the graphics department at a time when the need for 3-D is accelerating—in basically every spot that we do, there’s some element that is created using 3-D," said Ashkinos.
Florestant and Goldstein first met several years ago, when they were freelancing for the same company. "Gary suggested I consider taking a staff position at Slingshot. I liked the atmosphere and the people that work here; it is a tight-knit group and everyone seemed to get along really well, which is important when you are working so closely together," he noted.
Florestant graduated from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in ’92, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in illustration. After graduating, he freelanced for a number of years, taking on animation projects for a variety of companies, before joining Quid Technologies, New York, in ’96, where he worked on creating software for computer-based training modules. He then opened his own New York studio, which he called Electric Pencil. Recent projects out of Electric Pencil included developing the online animation for the M&M character Crispy, and animation on "Year End," both for MTV Online.
Florestant started working on freelance projects for Slingshot in January, when he was commissioned to do product animation for Winstar, followed by the motion graphics for AT&T’s Suncomm and logo animation for Napster. His first major project at the studio was for a new Advil product called Flexagen via Young & Rubicam, New York. Florestant has been teaching computer animation at the School of Visual Arts since ’94.
Slingshot is represented on the East Coast by Benson/ Schafler Artists Management.
