Studio Private Signs Art Director/3D Designer Hannah Coen
November 20, 2025
CD/director Robertino Zambrano at Sydney animation house KAPWA teams with co-director Christoph Sarow at AIM Creative Studio in Portugal to develop a playful illustration system for Australian price comparison platform Compare Club.
Robertino Zambrano: “The challenge was to create a unique, ownable, and expandable illustration style which celebrated individuality across the extremely diverse everyday heroes of Australia, the John and Jane Smiths of our country.
“The system had to span all media channels, from character design for TVCs and national outdoor campaigns; to illustrated icon systems for digital. The first creative hurdle was to work with the Compare Club team and the agency to help them discover what kind of illustration would work for their brand.
“The system had to span all media channels, from character design for TVCs and national outdoor campaigns; to illustrated icon systems for digital.”
“A huge part of this was taking the time to teach the client how to speak the language of art and illustration so they could understand the designs didn’t come out of a magical black box, but rather had intention – every line weight, shading style, and stylization of shape and character was attached to its own cocktail of mood, feeling, and pop-culture relevance.
“The second challenge was coming up with a style that felt very ownable and unique in the Australian marketplace, and was also practical to deploy across a full campaign in a relatively short amount of time.
“It was also essential for the icons to capture a balance of Australian ‘larrikin’ humour, while balanced against keeping the brand feeling sophisticated. Brainstorming and designing this suite of characters was one of the biggest joys of the campaign.
“The third challenge was that the client wanted to go big with this campaign in a short amount of time. So we tapped AIM to support us with production, resulting in a fantastic collaboration between our creative and production team in Sydney, a producer in Los Angeles, and AIM’s team in Portugal.”
Client: Compare Club
Agency: Clemenger BBDO
Production: KAPWA Studioworks, AIM Creative Studios
CD: Robertino Zambrano
Head of Production: Dulce Aguilar
Co-Directors: Christoph Sarow, Robertino Zambrano
Production Coordinator: Maristelle Tandog
Junior Director: Aki Clayton
Producer: Tiago Ribeiro
Project Manager: Daniela Carvalho
Storyboard/Animatic: Christoph Sarow
Illustrator: Christoph Sarow
Additional Illustration: Cristina Neto, Daniel Roque
Animation Supervisor: Christoph Sarow
Animation: Alexandre Sousa, Rúben Dantas, Padelis Paradisis, Cristina Neto, Ana Farinha, Ana Iutes
Motion Design: André Cunha, Jorge Ramos, Daniela Carvalho
Sound: Rumble Studios
Voice Director: Ralph Van Dijk
Voice Talent: Jean Kittson
