PSYOP Signs Melbourne Animation House Studio Showoff for U.S. Representation
December 16, 2025
2025 was another stellar year for character-driven design and animation projects with an extraordinary range of styles and production techniques all focused on a singular goal: ensuring the narrative engages and resonates.
We were honored to publish all of these projects in The Stash Permanent Collection during 2025. They are listed here in reverse chronological order by their issue of publication.
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Issue: Stash 174
Bristol-based illustrator/animator Con McHugh combines forces with digital design studio TwoMuch to add a little attitude to ON’s premium marathon running shoe, the Cloudboom Max.
Con McHugh: “Internally, ON had been playing with the shoe itself being this likeable, friendly character with sketched-on arms. They had a voice over scripted and some reference images. They had a huge amount of trust in letting me explore how we’d animate this character.”
Issue: STASH 173
Director Gary Levesque and the animation crew at WIZZ in Paris help agency and brand incubator Closer punch out of the very crowded cosmetics market with this fantasy-fueled animated launch film for GODMODE Beauty.
Working with original characters and story supplied by Closer and citing the influence of Japanese classics “Neon Genesis Evangelion” and “Akira”, Levesque immerses brand co-founders Chloë Grace Moretz and Rina Sawayama in a world of retro anime and gaming aesthetics.
Issue: STASH 173
Bart Yates, EP at Blinkink: “With AI threatening to reshape so much of the creative world, we wanted to go in the opposite direction, producing something tactile, raw, and handcrafted.
“Going down the claymation route allowed us to craft something with real intention and personality, at a time when it matters the most.”
Issue: STASH 170
From The Mill team in London: “Skoda’s ‘Be More’ campaign, launching the all-new Elroq electric car, is a perfect example of what happens when a great creative idea meets top-tier craftsmanship.
“One of the key challenges in creature animation is striking the right balance – avoiding excessive humanization while still creating characters that connect with audiences.”
Issue: STASH 169
Working with director/screenwriter Kelly Marcel, CD Karin Fong and the team at Imaginary Forces close out the Venom feature film trilogy with a “beastly parade” of corrupted creatures in this main-on-end title sequence.
Karin Fong: “Kelly knew from the start that she wanted to have fun with the symbiote take-over of various animals in these end titles. It’s a rousing celebration to close out the final film with lots of energy and punchy color. I mean, it’s Venom! So there’s really no such thing as too absurd.”
Issue: STASH 169
Olov Burman, director at Burman Studio in Tidaholm, Sweden: “For this film, I had pretty much free rein – the only requirement was that they wanted us to use the glasses/logo of the Nounsfest festival with the character.
“We wanted to focus on wild character animation and push the boundaries of our animation style. Therefore, a lot of effort was put into exploring how we could create character movements in ways we had not attempted before ”
Issue: STASH 169
Following up on 2023’s IGA holiday spot “Mr. Beaver” (Stash 163), Montreal’s Tonic DNA studio delivers another ambitious character-driven tale capturing the power of cooking to transcend family conflicts.
Director Quentin Fachon at Tonic DNA: “Our goal was to stay true to the IGA look and feel, and also differentiate this year from the two previous tales Tonic DNA and and agency Sid Lee have done together.”
Watch all the Best of Stash 2025 Collections.
