STATE Design:
Creative Director: Marcel Ziul
Head of Production: Alex dos Santos
Animators: Shawn Lee, Marcel Ziul, Dennis Moran, Danni Fisher-Shin, Luis Suarez
Designer: Bruna Imai, Marcel Ziul
Coordinator: Natalia Baldochi
Creative Director: Marcel Ziul
Head of Production: Alex dos Santos
Animators: Shawn Lee, Marcel Ziul, Dennis Moran, Danni Fisher-Shin, Luis Suarez
Designer: Bruna Imai, Marcel Ziul
Coordinator: Natalia Baldochi
Marcel Ziul is the studio’s founder and creative director, whose 14-year career speaks for itself: freelancer at Belief Design, Prologue Films, Stardust Studios and others, Emmy Award nominee and Promax BDA finalist.
Recently, STATE celebrated Veterans Day with a juicy spot for Syfy
Still from “Veterans Day”
When we first spoke to them (syfy), they had a relatively simple and elegant concept. It was more about textures and tasteful patriotic scenes. The project was creatively open-ended, so we kind of thought, “Let’s make this spot extra special for them.” We love 2D and cel animation, and we had been wanting to do more of it for a while now. So we started by creating some really nice illustrative boards. The client loved the boards. It always helps when your client loves the boards! From there it was a pretty smooth process. We brought in some very talented young animators who just shined on the project. They took ownership of the process — and I think that it shows in the final product. And it also helped that we had super supportive clients in Syfy who basically left us to our own devices in elevating their initial concept
SyFy / NBCUniversal - Veterans Day from STATE DESIGN on Vimeo.
This animation has a lively positive and upbeat style which relates to the point it is making but also has a serious undertone with the voice narrative and the fact that they have kept to a colour pallet that is not too overpowering and a mostly white background, bringing it back down to the level it is appropriate to be on in terms of energy due to the nature of the subject matter. The style as well that has been used is a liquid animation in which characters and shapes seem to flow into one another and have the appearance of paint or ink slightly. This has been a popular trending form of animation recently showing how the studio is potentially keeping up with popular trends.
More about the studio:
Marcel Ziul talks about the studio in an interview with motionographer and gives some interesting insight.
He explains how he has always wanted to open his own studio was to open a studio where he would want to work as a freelancer. And a place where artists have a voice, are looking to do amazing work and have fun doing it. Where the goal isn’t about making quick cash. Showing the passion behind his idea and for his craft. He says that the environment he has created with the team is more important than having flashy programmes and that the focus is on creating the work itself and working together well.
Ziul states that there’s no small project when the studio is small and every project is an opportunity for us to express ourselves.
He explains how he has always wanted to open his own studio was to open a studio where he would want to work as a freelancer. And a place where artists have a voice, are looking to do amazing work and have fun doing it. Where the goal isn’t about making quick cash. Showing the passion behind his idea and for his craft. He says that the environment he has created with the team is more important than having flashy programmes and that the focus is on creating the work itself and working together well.
Ziul states that there’s no small project when the studio is small and every project is an opportunity for us to express ourselves.
"Being a smaller shop requires us to have people who are very engaged and proactive. We have the opportunity to get more involved with each project and create a unique relationship with our clients. We are all willing to wear multiple hats."
Still on the topic of the size of State Design studio Marcel also talks about the challenges of owning a small independent studio and explains that the challenges that occur can be finding talent, staying profitable, finding clients, finding style and pitching against the big guys (larger studios with perhaps more staff and higher budgets). These challenges are all things that i can consider with regards to how to present my self and prepare for when i am trying to look for a job too as they all relate to my situation in one way or another although they may not be the same situations i will be faced with.
He states in this interview that "the idea of done is good enough can be a death sentence for a small studio like us" which is a nice piece of information that i should take note from as this is a similar challenge i have with my work (although i am not making work for clients just yet), working within deadlines does often make me cut corners with my work slightly and not push my work to the standard it could be especially when it comes to finishing touches and if i made enough time could easily be pushed further, however it is important for me to do this more as i can use my work for show reels etc and so all work is important and coming back to touch them up at the end can be time consuming or it could have been so long since i made it that i have miss placed programme files etc.
"When I was a freelancer, I used to focus on the technical and creative side of projects. As a business owner, I have to focus on both business and creative — find that sweet spot that is not necessarily right in the middle on every project. It allows me to see the business as a whole and really understand the importance of every person at the studio from executive producers to interns. It feels like going from a macro lens to a fisheye."(ziul)
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