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BY VALERIE GREGORY
Nestled on the ground floor of a residential building fronted by a formidable iron gate on the fringes of Vancouver’s gritty Chinatown, the animation and
documentary studio Giant Ant produces work that dazzles with its elegant styling, crisp visuals and imaginative story- telling. The office of thirteen people hums with creative energy. The décor is spare: exposed heating and air conditioning ducts, concrete floors, prints and hanging Chinese lanterns that pay homage to the neighborhood. There’s a birthday celebration today for one of the studio’s staff—an animator from Brazil—and organic burgers with all the fixings are spread out on a communal table. Giant Ant has a reputation as the little studio that could.
Headed for eight years by the husband-and-wife team of Jay Grandin and Leah Nelson, Giant Ant operates on the simple principle that what’s good for the studio is good for its clients. Its philosophy follows three rules—don’t miss a deadline, don’t be a jerk and put love into your work. The last tenet is paramount.
Lounging on a couch at the front of the large, open-space studio, Grandin and Nelson radiate calm intensity. “We put a huge amount of value in the culture of the team and its creative energy,” says the soft-spoken Grandin. “It’s our most precious resource—the happiness of our team has to come before money, and that decision drives our success.” Nelson quickly chimes in: “We attract really talented, specialized artists. They know about the third rule and subscribe to that value, so they can shine here. Over the years, people
Captions provided by Giant Ant.
ANT
have always said they can spot a Giant Ant project when they see it. It surprises Jay and me because if you look at our portfolio, nothing looks the same.” Indeed, the studio’s client list encompasses high-profile brands such as TOMS, Costa and Target, technology companies like Facebook and Slack, and nonprofits. The studio also creates original content: for example, Tangles, an animated documentary about Alzheimer’s disease, which Nelson is directing.
Storytelling beats at the heart of Giant Ant’s work. “Great design can really sweeten a project, but if there is no
real story, there’s no soul,” says Grandin. When they first started creating videos, after art school, the couple had little animation experience: Grandin had studied industrial design and worked as a furniture designer, and Nelson had majored in film, focusing on documentary filmmaking. They relied on storytelling to carry them through.
“Leah’s sense of what makes a good story is always right,” says regular client Lisa Hurlbutt, communications and marketing director of the British Columbia and Yukon division of the Canadian Cancer Society. “She and Jay are passionate, sharp, hands-on and really care about their work. That’s an important asset for the kind of videos we make, and it’s why we always turn to them.”
In 2007, a quirky video the pair made about how men and women shower went viral. Myspace noticed and hired Grandin and Nelson to produce a ten-part series based on the self- described “mediocre shower video.” Before they knew it, they were Myspace’s most-viewed filmmakers. From that video
Right: “Providing team-communication software for the 21st century, Slack approached us with a song from the 1940s, a deep affection for high fives and the idea of building a spaceship as a conduit for amazingness. Mixing black and white with color and traditional animation with 3-D, we took these cuties to space to make some new friends.” Rafael Mayani, art director; Stewart Butterfield/Jay Grandin, creative directors; Shawn Hight/Yan Jamacaru/ Rafael Mayani, illustrators; Nicholas Ferreira/Jay Grandin/Yan Jamacaru/Matt James/Mathijs Luijten/Jorge R. Canedo Estrada, compositors/animators; Nicholas Ferreira/Matt James/Mathijs Luijten/Jorge R. Canedo Estrada, 3-D animators; Henrique Barone/Desiree Cassidy/Yan Jamacaru/Matt James/ Mathijs Luijten/Justin Smith, animation editors; Cory Hawthorne, sound designer; Danny Simmons, music; Liam Hogan, producer; Stewart Butterfield/ Bill Macaitis/Brad Morris/Jamie Rosenfield, Slack, clients.
66 Advertising Annual 2016