Artifact Studios has tapped digital content veteran Brendon Schulze as Creative Director of the studio’s teams, to strengthen their capabilities across long and short-form video content in the gaming and nonfiction spaces. Working alongside Artifact’s founding Creative Director Brian Kessler, Schulze will help to expand Artifact’s creative capability in esports content, and to support its continued excellence in creating nonfiction content that reflects the diversity of the human spirit for purpose-driven brands.
Schulze’s career in creative development of digital content spans over 17 years. In 2009, he found himself at the beginning of the MCN movement as an early hire of seminal YouTube channel Machinima. There, Brendon worked in production and programming to help turn the channel into a digital media powerhouse, collaborating with brand partners such as Acura, Geico, Capcom, MGM, and Warner Brothers. In 2014, Brendon joined Legendary Digital Networks to launch the Nerdist/Geek & Sundry subscription service through the creation of a wide variety of content, including sketch comedy, scripted, educational, and news. After nearly two years as Director of Creative Development at Nerdist, Brendon joined the Activision Blizzard team to develop their entire slate of branded content, as they launched The Overwatch League, and later The Call of Duty League. Working on branded and supporting content, Schulze oversaw six seasons of esports before his departure in early 2021.
“Brendon is a phenomenal creative mind, a great manager, is smart and funny and really fun to collaborate with,” said Kessler. “His years of experience leading creative teams, and his deep knowledge of entertainment programming will be invaluable as Artifact continues to grow.”
Schulze added, “There is a lot of content out there, all competing for the attention of viewers with an ever-growing list of options. So much of it attempts to strike a genuine emotional chord with its audience, but everyone can tell when it’s lip service. At Artifact, the sincerity — and focus on the humanity of a thing — was immediately apparent. They aren’t out to just build a brand or make disposable content. They’re here to tell meaningful stories. I was immediately drawn to that.”
About ARTIFACT
Artifact Studios creates award-winning nonfiction video content, uniting talented minds from documentary, marketing, production design, events, gaming and film since 2001.
