FEED recently caught up with NY animation studio Nathan Love to talk about life after Psyop and all the little things that make their studio tick; classic rock, decapitated dolls, and spreading their love for cool characters.

How did Nathan Love come into being?

Nathan Love: Well, technically Nathan Love began 18 months ago when we moved into this space in SoHo and started our first job, but Nathan Love started when a couple of us were in college at SVA [School of Visual Arts], which is also where tons of Nathan Love-ers are from. At the time we were saying our dream was to have an animation company. Since then it’s been all about dreams and sparks.

What does that mean?

NL: There’s lots of dreams and sparks in an animation company. The studio is our creative platform to entertain people, tell stories and bring things to life. In our daily job we feel the same kind of excitement we had as little kids sitting and watching cartoons. We love to imagine and develop these magical characters that will ignite people’s imaginations.

Prior to starting Nathan Love some of you guys worked with Psyop on Coke’s award-winning “Happiness Factory” spot. What was that like?

NL: Working at Psyop was like living in a big treehouse. We saw the possibilities for building a company that can be cool, with its own culture … it was refreshing. We learned a lot from them.

So what does a day in the life of Nathan Love look like?

NL: We can’t tell you that, it’s top secret. Actually it’s a good mix of focus, concentration, and creativity. We play classic rock on Itunes, but maybe that’s because we don’t change the stations. A recent day found us at Pearl Paint shopping for creepy baby dolls and plastic animals for a job. By the end of the day every animal was decapitated and oddly deformed. The point is we have to stay creative and fun minded and somewhat childlike to do what we do.

What (or who) inspires your work?

NL: Artists, writers, musicians, rebels, Crumb, Ren & Stimpy, Looney Tunes, Disney, old cartoons, comic books, Amsterdam, traveling, time-traveling, beat-writers, The Merry Pranksters, David Lynch, animals, storytellers, Jim Henson, the Muppets, arts and crafts, The Ramones, monsters, Tim and Eric, propaganda, antiques, stop-motion, sideshows, Coney Island, oddities, puppets, New York.

What have been some of Nathan Love’s favorite creative moments so far?

NL: When we finally delivered the Guinness campaign, we found ourselves with some free time before Christmas. That’s when we did our two shorts, Rabbitard and CrackXmas. It was an arduous piece of work to do in two weeks. As it came together, people’s faces were like lighting up and were like, “Oh my God! That’s awesome. I can’t believe it’s actually like…we actually did it”. And it was a very fun Christmas because of that.

Is there any upcoming work that you’d like to note?

NL: We’re working on an animated short film that’s kind of experimental…. It’s filled with bizarre characters and humor.

Speaking of characters, you guys have a ton of character work, and you work across all media. Do you think of yourselves as primarily character designers? Are you focused more on doing interactive and viral work?

NL: We’re not focused on doing viral/interactive or any one thing. We’re most interested in making fun, cool characters, worlds and stories. We want to entertain, and in the process entertain ourselves.

Where does Nathan Love want to go tomorrow?

NL: Space.

To see more of Nathan Love’s work, check out: http://www.nathanlove.com/
Big thanks to Eric Eddy and all at Nathan Love.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 am and is filed under Feed, The Interview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.