From the release:
Award-winning design studio Elastic and UK animation studio Feed Me Light are announcing a reciprocal partnership, allowing both companies to broaden their reach across advertising and entertainment projects. Elastic and Feed Me Light’s first official collaboration is the just-released teaser for Valorant, one of the first games Riot Games’ made outside of League of Legends. “The script came in and we felt like it was the perfect opportunity for Feed Me Light to stretch their wings,” Andy Hall, Creative Director at Elastic said. “We knew that they had the latitude to explore it. The creative brief was very open and they really ran with it and owned it.”
As the industry continues to reshape itself with a truly global conversation, opportunities and expansion are contingent upon establishing relationships in foreign markets, and Elastic’s partnership with Feed Me Light allows each company to do just that. It is a mutually beneficial creative union, as each studio is now advantaged with an award-winning network of animators, graphic artists, and industry relationships on both sides of the Atlantic. “It’s like jigsaw pieces fitting together,” Andy Hall described. “We each stand on our own merit but complement one another.” Bodart reiterated that the creative partnership has “always felt like a very fair and easy relationship.”
As is the case with many relationships these days, it started over DMs. Hall first reached out on Instagram to Denis Bodart, Founder and Executive Creative Director at Feed Me Light, an established animation studio based in London. Hall had been a long-time fan of the UK studio’s work, but he also saw a potential in the studios’ creative and operational like-mindedness.
“They speak the same narrative language as Elastic,” Hall explained. “We are each rooted in animation. Stylistically, we each have a broad brush and a variety of aesthetics. Their voice is very similar to ours in terms of how they present their work, how they speak about their work, and how they talk to clients,” he added. Both studios originated as family businesses, seeking to provide opportunities for artists to grow beyond their predetermined roles.
Bodart shared the same sentiments about Elastic. He had long admired the visual range and high quality of their work, and after connecting with Hall, Bodart felt a kinship between their companies, recognizing the same artistic passion, family feel, and emphasis on producing exceptional creative. “It was an amazing opportunity for us to get to pitch on Valorant, and then to win it with Elastic,” he added. “Working together was a really easy process with great communication.”
The studios are already in production on a soon-to-be-released second collaboration, and Hall anticipates both Elastic and Feed Me Light evolving their skill sets and growing their portfolios across all creative mediums – whether its commercials, TV, game teasers, title sequences, or long-form material – and tapping into the vast pool of talented animators around the world. As Hall said, “as long as you can make the relationship and the conversations with the clients work, I believe it behooves you to look far and wide.”