Bristol, U.K.-headquartered Aardman Animations is acquiring a majority stake in NY-based animation company Nathan Love, bringing together two notable animation studios. The new stateside company to be re-branded Aardman Nathan Love is a ground-breaking venture for the studio, signaling its first permanent production facility outside the UK and further establishes the company’s commitment to its advertising business.
Speaking of the decision to create a New York based company, David Sproxton, co-founder and executive chairman of Aardman, said “We’re so excited to welcome Nathan Love to the Aardman family. Teaming up with an existing company gives us the opportunity to hit the ground running and a solid base from which to grow. This venture is not about sending work back to the U.K. It’s about building a new business in New York for American agencies and we feel we can do this more effectively by being there. Aardman’s vision is to be the most inspirational animation company in the World, in the eyes of its talent, partners and audiences, for generations to come. Aardman Nathan Love will allow us to expand this vision in the U.S.”
Nathan Love, founded by Joe Burrascano in 2007, produces advertising for assorted high profile clients and brands including Kellogg’s, Kraft, Pepsi, NBC Universal and Nickelodeon.
On the decision to partner with Nathan Love, Heather Wright, executive producer of partner content at Aardman, said, “Joe Burrascano and the team at Nathan Love bring a tremendous amount of new and exciting energy to the table. They share our love of great craft, with a strong focus on character and storytelling, so our relationship is one of mutual respect. As the worlds of advertising and content become increasingly intertwined, this partnership will give us the opportunity to develop longer format and interactive projects in the U.S.”
On partnering with Aardman, Burrascano said: “The partnership feels very natural, our values and philosophy are closely aligned, and the potential for what we can do together is incredibly inspiring. We hope agencies and clients will feel the same way, and that in working with us they will have access to a unique wealth of talent and storytelling experience.”
Encore VFX Expands Armen Kevorkian’s Role
Encore VFX has expanded the role of sr. VFX supervisor Armen Kevorkian to include executive creative director responsibilities. Nominated for the 2015 Outstanding Special Visual Effects Emmy Award for work on The CW Series The Flash, Kevorkian is also working on CBS’ Supergirl and The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow. In the new ECD role, he’ll help set the look and guide direction of projects throughout Encore VFX.
“Armen has been instrumental in putting Encore VFX on the map and a large reason we’ve enjoyed such success in the superhero genre to date. With the ECD title, we’ve essentially just formalized his involvement on projects company-wide, which allows us to lay the groundwork in building out the team further,” said Tom Kendall, SVP, Encore VFX.
Since joining the company in 2011, Kevorkian has helped grow Encore’s VFX operations from a handful of artists that largely did invisible work for projects already being posted in-house to a studio that is behind some of the most impressive VFX in television. While at Encore VFX, his teams earned Emmy and VES Awards for Cinemax’s Banshee, and a Leo Award for The Flash, in addition to various nominations for work on Hawaii Five-O. Other projects include The Tomorrow People, Hostages, Homeland, Ray Donovan, Unforgettable and Castle. Kevorkian started his career in VFX working on projects from the studio side working on shows such as Ghost Whisperer, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Voyager and Alias.
The aforementioned Emmy nomination was for the “Grodd Lives” episode of The Flash. It is the fifth career Emmy nom for Kevorkian.
Encore is part of the family of Deluxe Creative Services companies.
Mixtape Club Captures “The Wild Bunch” For ESPN
New York-based integrated creative studio Mixtape Club wrapped a funny animated documentary short titled The Wild Bunch, the pilot episode of ESPN’s #Not-Pictured series, which debuted earlier this month. Narrated by former Major League Baseball all-star and current ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk, The Wild Bunch recounts the assemblage of the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies’ motley roster of offbeat characters as related in Kruk’s own candid words, with a few bizarre locker room anecdotes, to boot.
Mixtape Club animated a series of stylized vignettes to accompany his candid voiceover, drawing inspiration from some of their favorite old animated shows, namely Dr. Katz and Home Movies, which have an incredible economy of animation in order to tell a comedic story.
Mixtape Club directed with Chris Lenox Smith serving as executive creative director/editor/sound design-mix, Jesse Casey as TD, Lauryn Siegel as producer, Lindsey Mayer-Beug as art director/animator, Mary Varn as storyboard artist/animator/editor, Casey Drogin, Sean Moller, Jules Koetsch, Adam Sacks, Tavet Gillson and Jason Katzenstein as animators, and Patrick Cupples, Parker Silzer and John Parthum contributed to the sound design and mix.
