I have been an animation professional for the past 18 years and have been drawing and sculpting squiggly creatures for as long as I remember.

I was born in Germany, studied fine art at Kunstakademie Stuttgart and went on to earn an MA in animation at the Royal College of Art in London. All of my student films screened at major animation festivals.

I am at home in computer-, stop-motion- and 2D animation and am equally comfortable with paint and clay as I am with pixels. My favorite part of the animation process is the design: the visualizing of small worlds and characters that have never existed before. My style has shaped the look of many advertising campaigns and chances are good that you have seen my work in print and on television.

After freelancing as a director, designer and animator in Britain for companies such as Propaganda Films, Limelight, 3Peach Animation and Diverse Productions in London, Aardman Animation in Bristol and the BBC, I jumped across the pond in 1996 to join LAIKA, formerly Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon. Today I design and direct for the commercials branch of the company, LAIKA/house, with a few stints of character design for feature film development at LAIKA Entertainment.

  • As an art director at LAIKA, I was the design force behind a high-profile campaign for esure.com in the UK. My charming mouse character could be seen on posters in the London underground and billboards all over the country and 7 beautifully shot stop-motion commercials were shown on TV and in cinemas.
  • Ben and Jerry’s ice cream used my look for a very funny 2006 ad campaign, that is still raking in awards today.
  • ESPN “Believe”, for which I designed a family of Buffalo Bills fans was also hugely successful and has even been included in MOMA’s permanent collection.
  • “Clay People”, a commercial that I directed for the American Cheese Board won a Bronze Clio and a Silver plaque at the Chicago International Television competition.
  • My M+M’s ad “Bowlful of Yous” was a finalist in Cannes.
  • I also did the initial character and environment designs for the long-running and very popular 2D-animated Eggos campaign, with 15 commercials so far.
  • In 2007 I was the animation director and main designer for Once Upon a Tide, an educational short about the fragile health of our oceans, commissioned by the Harvard Medical School. Narrated by Linda Hunt, the unconventional story takes the form of a fairy tale and uses surreal imagery to make its point. This film is currently screening at film festivals, environmental conferences and aquariums around the globe.

While lending my design sense and unique style to numerous ad campaigns, I have also always pursued more personal art projects including short films, sculptures and paintings, and have exhibited my work in galleries in Oregon and California.