It's meta, and it's immediately clear and powerful. When Hornet Director Kyle Bean (@kylejbean) was asked to create a cover image for Greenpeace Magazine about the notion of a ‘War of Hunger’, he responded with this compellingly literal illustration. The tragic grain blockade being carried out by the Russian Regime in Ukraine could drive millions more people into an acute food crisis this year. To illustrate this tragic fact, Kyle created a tank made from bread.

Sam Mason keeps the awards coming for his "Colors and Shapes" music video with a Graphic Pencil from D&AD awards.

Sarah Beth Morgan's short film "Between Lines" wins the Audience Award at this year's Brooklyn Film Festival.

For Ernie Ball celebrating its 60th anniversary, Ariel Costa created a vibrant 4-minute animation, highlighting the impact that the iconic Slinky guitar strings had on the development of the rock-n-roll guitar.

"Real Magic Lunar New Year"—a heartfelt spot directed by Yves Geleyn—scoops up Bronze at this year's Clio Awards.

Yves Geleyn's tiger characters were featured in a series of multiplayer mini-games for Coca-Cola, which won at The FWA Awards.

Two golds in the space of a week for Hornet Director Sam Mason and his music video for Mac Miller's "Colors and Shapes." Congratulations, Sam! 

Sam Mason's "Color and Shapes" wins Gold at Shots - The Americas for Music Video of the Year.

Yves Geleyn's heartfelt CG spot for Coca-Cola is shortlisted at the AICP Awards.

Exploring the intersection between art and nature, material, light, and color with Hornet Director, Clim Studio.

Throwback to this clever clay morphing from the one and only Peter Sluszka. See instagram for full video.

Three tutorials, one majorly satisfying motion-design campaign. In this “How to Job” series for Adobe, Hornet CD Itay Tevel delivers a clinic in “how to create best-in-class motion design” by showcasing three Adobe programs: InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Each tutorial is packed with cool & contemporary design, bold & balanced colors, and a distinctly Millennial-centric sensibility. In other words, the humble tutorial gets a totally motion-fueled, design-forward, snappy & stylish makeover.

Something’s bubbling! In this electrifying short, Andrea Love re-imagines the Hulu logo with fuzzy, fibrous, almost Frankenstein-ian glee. Hulu collaborated with a number of artists to create a series of live-streamed idents. Andrea's "Fuzz Machine" is one of the standouts.

The popular fad of making things out of cake that don't look like cake. But his time Andrea Love does it in wool!

Huge shoutout to Hornet Director Sam Mason for the nomination at this year’s shots - The Americas awards for Music Video of the Year!

Investors Day at Verizon is kind of a big deal. It’s a chance to not only showcase new products and generate buzz for shareholders but also to align the brand’s vision with—well—stunning visuals. For this year’s keynote presentation, Hornet CD Eric Lane teamed up once again with Verizon’s creative team to further solidify the ongoing Hornet-Verizon partnership and to create a 45-second sizzle reel packed with 3D animations, 2D graphics, and about as much power & punch as Verizon’s 5G network.

Our Summer 2022 Internship application is now open. Please read through the presentation carefully and apply through the google form found at the end. The application will be closed on Sunday, April 3rd at 11:59pm EST. Applications submitted past the deadline will not be reviewed.

In a collaboration between our 2D & 3D departments, we showered this V-Day Hornet Original in tons of love. Check it out! 

Hornet Managing Director & Co-Founder Michael Feder will be heading up the head judge position for this year's Shots - The Americas awards show. 

Yukai Du's sublime and unmistakable style is on full display in a new solo art exhibition held inside the flagship store of Tianan Qianshu KÜKÜ, Shanghai.

In this spot for Coca-Cola, Yves Geleyn creates a simple yet symbolic story about a father & son, a homecoming, and the new beginnings of the Lunar New Year.

From the minds of Mikey Please and Dan Ojari to the big streaming screen of Netflix, we're thrilled to announce Robin Robin has been shortlisted for an Oscar and a BAFTA.

Pop bottles and peep this wonderfully stylized toast to a new year from Hornet's Seongjin Yoon.

From the mind (and hand) of Hornet Director Natalie Labarre, here are all those family Christmas moments no one ever talks about. 

Robin might be a terrible mouse. But she’s a wonderful robin. That's the "be yourself" message behind Parabella's new 30-minute stop motion Christmas special, streaming on Netflix.

May the simple things bring you joy this holiday season. We wish you a safe and happy holiday, from all of us here at Hornet.

Photoreal CG meets modern architecture in this broadcast spot from Hornet CD Eric Lane for the Verizon web store. 

Renaud Lavency is a Belgian illustrator and director whose style is an enchanting mix of evocative 2D illustration, bold use of color, and cinematic storytelling packed into a snappy graphic language.

In this holiday spot from Hornet Directors Moth, all the holiday feels are alive and well—Rudolph, elves, and the Claus's all included.

When you keep it real, you have "Flow Original." That's the message behind this spot celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month and Foot Locker's Flow Original Clase ‘21.

Universe, meet metaverse. Hornet Director Sam Mason has created a video painting made with vectors that is on its way via satellite to the moon. 

Five exciting new arcs, five magical new adventures! Get ready for new episodes of Summer Camp Island streaming on HBO Max.

Cyber Monday brought to you by Hornet’s own @ty_enos

With his signature mixed-media-collage style, Ariel Costa delivers an untypical spot for 1792 Bourbon that seamlessly delivers on their "Untypical" tagline.

Check out Sarah Beth Morgan's newly launched website for her beautiful upcoming short film, Between Lines.

Sam Mason and Miller McCormick jump on the phone with Interview Mag to discuss "Colors and Shapes" and the journey they took to create a music video that would honor the late great Mac Miller.

As she enters post-production of Summer Camp Island, Julia is back. And readier than ever to rediscover some of her shorter-form work.

In this music video for Ingrid Michaelson's downright delightful holiday duet with Zooey Deschanel, Hornet Director Andrea Love (and co-director Phoebe Wall) create a wooly love letter to all things merry & bright.

Textural musings, whimsical characters, and a firm yet fluid ability to weave it all together with conceptual narrative storytelling. We're delighted to welcome Sarah Beth Morgan to our roster.

In this explainer video for Happify, Hornet’s Itay Tevel creates a storytelling system built on energetic motion, engaging transitions, and engrossing rhythm.

Three teas, three beautifully brought-to-life spots from Hornet Director Natalie Labarre for tea-brand Traditional Medicinals.

Watch Sarah Beth Morgan bring the Bath & Body Works world to life.

In this sizzle celebrating a renewed partnership between Verizon & the NFL, Hornet CD Corey Langelotti creates a tech-inspired, sports-influenced graphic design language that's a total touchdown.

Andy Baker's emotionally-resonant animated music video for the easy life track "a message to myself" has been shortlisted at this year's UKVMAs.

For the 2nd year running, Hornet collaborated with Spotify to produce the "Best New Artists" campaign with a series of iridescent animations & dynamic motion graphics from Director Sam Mason & Motion Lead Itay Tevel.

Hornet Director Sam Mason teamed up with the family of Mac Miller to create a surreal & stirring music video for “Colors and Shapes.”

In this spot for Japanese brand GOGO-NO-KOCHA, Hornet Director Yves Geleyn creates a simple and sweet story about a young girl striving to carry on her family's legacy.

Since 2018, Hornet Director Andy Baker has helped Habito take the mortgage category by storm with a series of gleefully gruesome ads. 

Summer's not over yet!  Get your wool-fired grill on in this latest animation from Andrea Love.

Vucko partnered with Netflix to create a motion branding show package that according to Stash is "both upbeat & elegant."

Clever ideas, radical proposals, and adorable roommate creatures—here's how Director Eran Hilleli envisions tomorrow's technologies redefining the way we live at home.

"It is not a bag. It is Le Pliage." Hornet's Sander Plug directs and choreographs a new promo film for Longchamp's most iconic bag.

As our ongoing Kroger campaign continues, we're taking a moment to celebrate that partnership in the grooviest way possible: A Kroji-character dance-off.

Century 21 teamed up with Hornet Directors Natalie Labarre and Yves Geleyn to celebrate their 50th-anniversary with 50 years of real-life realtor stories.

E3, 5G, CG. Six simple characters, one big idea. This year, Hornet had the great privilege of creating the intro film for Verizon’s first-ever keynote speech at E3.

Delighted to announce that Yves Geleyn's "PLANimation" will be screened at this year's Pictoplasma Festival.

For Hornet’s second campaign with Ziply, we turned to the directorial talents of Moth to create an anthem for internet-ers everywhere. 

Introducing Looom Version 1.5—the iPad app that rethinks traditional animation tools and unlocks a more free-form way to learn and create animation. 

Sending love of every shade of brown in this latest video for Google from Hornet Director Bee Grandinetti. Song by Black Thought to support Browndages and small businesses everywhere.

Vibrant 2D animation and spunky live action collide in these two spots for Facebook. 

Andrea Love serves up the drink of summer in this latest wool stop motion mini-masterpiece.

A throwback to some captivating kaleidoscopic animations we made alongside Spotify's creative team and Director Simone Noronha.

Delighted to announce that Yves Geleyn's "PLANimation" has won a Gold at Shots - The Americas 2021 in 3D Animation.

Dan & Jason bring "overdelivery" to the summertime suburbs in this latest spot for Kroger. Check it out here.

We teamed up with our friends at DDB to help them create a series of unexpectedly awesome animated idents. 

This year, we're honored to announce that three films from the Hornet family have been awarded Pencil Awards. See the full list of winners.

Watch Andrea Love's new wool stop motion video featuring one of summer's most iconic treats—the gloriously humble and delicious banana split.

We're thrilled to announce 3 Hornet films have been shortlisted at Shots this year: Yves Geleyn's "PLANimation," Peter Sluszka's "Max & Maxine," and Natalie Labarre's "Travel the Vote."

We're delighted to announce a trifecta of shortlist nominations at this year's D&AD Awards show: Natalie Labarre's "Travel the Vote," Sam Mason's "For Sure," and Peter Sluszka's "Max & Maxine."

We are looking for an Art Director and a Creative Development Coordinator. See our Careers page for more info.

Forget cockadoodledoo. In Peter Sluszka’s latest stop motion spot for UK mattress brand eve sleep, a well-rested rooster turns yodeling into the new rise-and-shine anthem of the ages.

Moth's Headspace blob is back, and it's sleepier than ever.

Brought to you by Hornet Director Andrea Love and her eco-conscious wool stop motion naturalism.

Andrea is an animator and director who specializes in stop motion animation with needle felted wool. Her work is truly one of a kind. 

“A symphonic essay on depression, and a powerful plea for self-love.” Andy Baker's music video is at once tense and touching, sad and uplifting, entertaining and inspiring.

Natalie taps into her very own vast kingdom of talents to deliver the “Protect Your Kingdom” message in wildly effective fashion.

Hornet CD Eric Lane gets super photorealistic in his latest personal project. “Damu is a personal study of the human form and a characterization of people of North African descent.”

We continue to create work with various Hornet directors alongside our friends at DDB New York for Kroger.

Three Hornet films have been nominated at this year's Annie Awards: Peter Sluszka's "Max & Maxine" and Natalie Labarre's "Away - Travel the Vote" for Best Sponsored, and "Yves Geleyn's "Nixie & Nimbo" for Best Special Production.

Hornet is thrilled to welcome Copenhagen-based design & animation practice Relay Studio to the director roster.

Hornet is pleased to welcome Vucko to the director roster. Vucko is a Toronto-based creative practice specializing in design systems and motion. Led by Andrew Vucko, the studio’s work and worldview are guided by three core principles: clarity, function, and movement. This trifecta of ideals is evident in everything they do.

The Hornet team keeps growing. The latest developments include joint promotions of Eric Lane and Corey Langelotti to Creative Director roles.

Hornet announced today two exciting team movements within the organization. Karen Lawler, formerly of Psyop and Blacklist, joins as Head of Production. Meanwhile, Dez Stavracos becomes Hornet’s first-ever Production Supervisor.

Looking for something to cook for the New Years? How about Kyle Bean recreating meals that he has made out of materials & objects found in his home studio.
Caleries Zero Fiber 100%

If 2020 proved anything, it’s that there’s never been a more important time for meditation. That’s why the new Headspace Guide to Meditation on Netflix is a must-watch. The trailer from Moth? Equally worth watching.

‘Tis the season… to be very glad 2020 is finally over. However you hunkered down at home this year, here’s to making it through. Happy holidays!

The Little Lungs campaign is back, and it’s as cheerfully grotesque as ever! This time, it's joined by Terry Crews, Tony Hawk, and Sky Katz.

In this Instagram Original, Hornet's Motion Lead Itay Tevel explores the essence of Hanukkah by showing the illuminating power of uniting together.

Hornet is thrilled to announce long-serving Hornet animator Natalie Labarre has been elevated to our director roster.

We are honored to announce that Ciclope Festival awarded us the Animation Company of the Year.

"Planimation" Wins Gold in this year's Ciclope Festival in the "Post Production - Animation" category.

This page showcases some of Sam Mason's most mesmerizing experimental work. Some of these creatures are bizarre & scary, some cute & furry, all are prime examples of Sam's motion mastery.

Watch the Making of Max and Maxine by Peter Sluszka.  An irresistible implementation of stop motion using custom-made puppets and materials—which transforms the story from simple and sweet to completely enthralling.

Hornet's Prime Day execution is back and stronger than ever! The campaign was a little different this time around in terms of technique (mostly CG instead of all stop motion) and process (done entirely remotely). But despite the differences, director Peter Sluszka and his team, delivered yet again. That's five years in a row Amazon has trusted Hornet to handle campaign messaging for their largest sales event of the year, and five years in a row that we've absolutely relished the challenge.

In a universe where everything is interconnected, even the smallest actions have cosmic consequences—and the collective power to heal. That's the message behind this film by Hornet Director Yves Geleyn.

Latest spot from Kroger "Get Low".

Delighted to announce that this year we had three great films selected: “LLS - Grace” by Natalie Labarre, “Habito - The Climb” by Andy Baker, and “Kroger - Aerobics” by César Pelizer.

Back in the spring, the music group, Future Islands—an indie electronic group—contacted Hornet Director Sam Mason to make a music video for their song “For Sure.” 

The film’s storyline follows two autonomous cars courting one another in a choreographed love dance as they drive across landscapes pockmarked with relics of longgone human civilizations. Eventually, the two cars run out of gas and end up next to each other. It’s a love song and a simple love story told in the most futuristic form: CG digital filmmaking.

An ongoing personal project by Kyle Bean recreating meals that he has made out of materials & objects found in his home studio. Kyle started the project during the Covid-19 lockdown and set himself the challenge of only using materials that he has available at home. Kyle documents the process of making the ‘meals' and then photographs the final creation on a brightly coloured background.

In quarantined times, here’s how some Hornet team members make working from home work.
 
At Hornet, we’ve done our best to manage the situation responsibly and proactively. Over the last few weeks, we’ve felt humbled by our team’s adaptability and ability to work remotely. And we’ve felt fortunate that our production capabilities haven’t been as badly affected as they could have been. With social distancing measures in place across the globe, most advertising film shoots have been put on hold for the foreseeable future. But animation has always inherently eliminated the need for large groups to congregate and oversee production.
 
Animation has been in our company DNA for the last 20 years, and now, more than ever, we believe in its power to tell great stories. Here are some examples of the type of work we can do.

Thrilled to announce Hornet’s Natalie Labarre (@fattnatt) has had her film for LLS shortlisted at the @annecyfestival

In these uncertain times, we are fully focused on doing all we can to serve and support our team, our clients, and the industry at large. We’ve already taken extra precautions to ensure a safe and productive work-from-home environment for our team, both for their safety and the broader community they might come in contact with. This way our workflow can continue uninterrupted for our clients while doing all we can to flatten the curve.

We are also continuing to monitor updates on COVID-19 and are prepared to react in keeping with the CDC’s recommendations. But perhaps the best thing we can do right now is to keep our heads up - and also put our heads down. In other words, we must remain optimistic while continuing to do and deliver good work. Because doing so will bring us together and make us stronger once these troubling times pass.

Stay safe, wash your hands, and be conscientious.

All of our best,
Hornet

Words from Vogue Magazine: "Sit down: Class is in session, and Hamish Bowles, Vogue’s international editor at large, is on hand to tell you everything you need to know about the It bag phenomenon that kicked off in the 1990s, the decade that keeps on giving."

Hornet, the multidisciplinary production studio with two decades of experience producing award-winning work, announced today a string of promotions throughout the organization.

Collectively, the four individuals in line for promotion have worked with Hornet for over thirty years. Individually, each person brings with them a quiver of diverse skill sets, a wealth of expertise, and the type of hunger and drive, mixed with affability and love for what they do, that has become emblematic of the Hornet team over the years.

In Managing Partner Michael Feder's words, "We’re excited to kick off the new year with a series of promotions that are really about empowering a group of wonderfully talented team members who’ve been at the core of Hornet’s evolution over the years."

The promotions are as follows:

Kristin Labriola has been promoted to Head of Creative Development, a new role within the Hornet studio. For 8 years, Kristin has operated as the Development Producer at Hornet, where she developed the creative strategy behind Hornet’s commercial pitch process, managed this process logistically and creatively from beginning to end, and helped with director outreach and the continued fosterment of Hornet’s director roster. Michael Feder says, “Kristin has grown to become an invaluable creative voice within Hornet, and she will work with Hana [Managing Director], Greg [Managing Partner], and myself to ensure that the decisions we make, as we grow, lead to the best creative outcome.”

Cathy Kwan has been promoted to Executive Producer. Cathy has been with Hornet for close to a decade. A people person by heart, she is a veteran of the production world. Prior to Hornet, she worked in long-form television production for children’s programming, managing relationships with animation studios and seeing to all phases of production. Her role as Senior Producer at Hornet has seen her work with a number of big clients, including ongoing campaigns with Facebook. As she moves into her EP role, Cathy will bid and produce jobs along with a more concentrated emphasis on further developing Hornet’s client relationships at Hornet.

Marty Geren has been promoted to Senior Producer. Marty has been with Hornet for the last 10 years, the first half of which as a CG Lead before becoming a Producer. As Marty moved into his role as a Producer, his extensive background in CG modeling, lighting, texturing, and rendering made him the perfect liaison between art and production at Hornet. For 9 years, Marty has led the McDonald’s campaign with Leo Burnett London, one of Hornet’s longest relationships. (He also happened to be a McDonald’s breakfast manager back in high school, so it’s been a very long, full circle relationship, indeed!)

Dez Stavracos has been promoted to Senior Producer. With a strong background in 2D animation and 6 years as a producer at Hornet, Dez’s journey to Senior Producer has been eclectic and interesting. After studying traditional animation at the School of Visual Arts in New York, he worked for 3 years as a producer for renowned animator & filmmaker Bill Plympton. Dez's experience with longform 2D animation—his first "true love"—has made him an invaluable contributor to the 2D department at Hornet. Moving forward, he will continue to produce with an added focus on nurturing and developing the 2D team.

Hello, and welcome to a new year, a new decade, and a new way to engage with your good friends at Hornet. That’s right: We’re thrilled to announce we’re starting off the Roaring Twenty-Twenties with a brand new, freshly redesigned website.

The decision to redesign was born out of a desire to showcase more of our process here at Hornet. Final films are usually the only things people see. While the final films produced at Hornet are always of the highest order (if we do say so ourselves), it’s the stuff that goes into making them where the fun, creative magic and unfettered ingenuity takes place. Rather than withholding that magic for only us to see, we wanted to let people in on things like how many x-acto blades were used to create a city of cardboard or how we rigged a slice of pizza to row a boat or how we’ve worked continuously with one particular brand since the days when Blockbuster video stores were still a thing.

With the new layout, we’re providing more of a behind-the-scenes peek into the journey from concept to final delivery, complete with all of the exciting, exhausting, and exhaustive endeavor that goes into it.

Of course, none of this website redesign would have been possible without the help of our close friends at Hugo and Marie. Endless thanks and praise to them for their keen eye for design and their tireless ability to tackle every question and concern we sent their way!

Finally, a few housekeeping items: Our new URL is now https://hellohornet.com. Please note that our email addresses and social media handles have also changed accordingly to @hellohornet.

We hope you love the new site as much as we do. As always, we’d love to hear from you!
Hana & Michael

We are pleased to share with you a roundup of our latest holiday work. From wrapping paper worlds to lovable CG characters, below are three spots full of festive cheer that we’re excited to deck your inbox halls with. Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

For the 2019 “Happy Honda Days” sales event, Honda and RPA teamed up with Hornet to create a holiday spot that would steer away from a typical CG job, and instead, cruise toward a more textured, tactile, altogether new world—one that would be constructed with the most iconic of holiday materials (wrapping paper) and conveyed with an appealing mix of stop motion and CG animation.

In May 2019, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and creative agency Oberland approached Hornet to create a 45-second spot detailing how LLS can help people come to terms with the ugly, earth-shattering news of a cancer diagnosis. LLS is the largest nonprofit dedicated to creating a world without blood cancers. Since 1949, they’ve invested nearly $1.3 billion in groundbreaking research and also provided patient support to thousands of people, guiding them to a wide array of education and support services.

Kroger—the largest supermarket chain in the U.S.—recently enlisted the expertise of DDB and Hornet to aid in a massive company rebrand. In addition to the launch of a new logo, new tagline, and new brand messaging centered around fresh, affordable food for all, Kroger wanted to create an overall look and feel that would be completely ownable and original.

So, they turned to the talents of Hornet director César Pelizer. Put simply, the Brazilian-born, London-based director has a style that’s about as original as it gets—as original, you could say, as the original grocery store Mr. Barney Kroger opened in downtown Cincinnati back in 1883.

Kroger has come a long way since 1883. (To be fair, plenty of things have come a long way since the Victorian era. But that’s beside the point!) Kroger, today, is HUGE. It’s the second-largest general retailer in the US, 4th largest in the world, and the 17th biggest company on the Forbes 500 list. Nine million people shop at Kroger each day across 2,800 stores in 35 states. It makes sense, then, that Kroger wanted their rebrand launch to have a comparably sizable splash.

NYC based mixed media production company, Hornet, announced today that Hana Shimizu will be promoted to Managing Director / Executive Producer, and Alex Unick will join as a full-time Executive Producer.

What happens when all these folks converge in a room... a room in Morning Breath’s Brooklyn studio, let’s say? You get a campaign that’s the complete antithesis to “standard.”

July 15th marks the kick-off of Amazon’s fifth ever Prime Day. It also happens to be the fourth time Amazon has chosen Hornet director Peter Sluszka as the creative architect behind their biggest day of the year. So, you could say Peter knows a thing, or four, about the importance of Prime Day.

Me Too “Daniela” has been selected for the World Panorama at the 2019 Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Hornet director Peter Sluszka has created another magical moment with the newest film Cucumber for the McDonald's Happy Meals campaign out of Leo Burnett UK. Starting over a decade ago, Hornet and Leo Burnett UK, with Sluszka at the helm, have worked together to create beautifully art directed and playful films most recently starring a few mischievous box characters called the Happys (the Happy Meal boxes brought to life).

How dew you sum up the ridiculous diversity of America in 15-seconds?

Headspace approached Moth once again to create some new content for the promotion of Sleep, a place for restless sleepers to find meditation and music within their app. They produced a hero :60 film and six :15 spots starring a cast of characters all wanting a good night's sleep.