Permanent Collection

Petrick & Natalia Bazina Roll Out the Carpet for WOSTOK

Posted on Friday, July 31, 2026

Working with berlin-based director Natalia Bazina, the crew at Petrick expand their extensive portfolio of animation styles with this tactile take on stop-motion carpets for German soft drink brand WOSTOK.

Misha Petrick, co-founder/CD at Petrick Animation Studio in Berlin: This film, called “Smuggled & Bottled”, explores the eastern origins of WOSTOK, inspired by flavors of Uzbekistan, including dates and pomegranates.

Set against the cultural landscape of contemporary Berlin, one of Europe’s most multicultural cities, the film tells a story of how flavors travel with people, crossing borders through recipes, memories, and personal histories.

“The film tells a story of how flavors travel with people, crossing borders through recipes, memories, and personal histories.”

At the center of the film is the visual language of Uzbek carpets. Their traditional patterns transform into a living animated world, connecting eastern ingredients with the characters, textures, and unexpected details of modern Berlin.

To create this world, we combined hand-drawn illustration, frame-by-frame animation, and experimental digital techniques. AI-based tools were explored as part of the visual development process, not as a replacement for the artists’ work, but as a way to discover new textures, movements, and unexpected connections while preserving the handmade feeling of the animation.

The result is a hybrid animation approach where traditional craft meets new creative technologies, reflecting the core idea of WOSTOK: authentic cultural roots reimagined through the lens of contemporary urban culture.

Images

Textile art of a woman with large earrings and a high collar. A band of orange light crosses her eyes, adding a striking focal point. The dark background features floral and geometric patterns in red, green, and blue, reminiscent of the signature style seen when Petrick & Director Natalia Bazina roll out the carpet for WOSTOK. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

A person on horseback crosses a narrow bridge above a tall waterfall, framed by a decorative floral border in warm colors—a scene reminiscent of Natalia Bazina’s evocative designs for WOSTOK. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

A stylized rug by Natalia Bazina shows a person in a red robe standing on stacked bundles next to a camel and a goat, framed by blue arches and a patterned border with lion motifs, capturing WOSTOK’s signature artistic flair. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

A bottle of WOSTOK pomegranate soda with a vintage-style label lies on a colorful, patterned rug featuring a cartoon bear’s face and paw. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

A woven tapestry in the style of Natalia Bazina shows a person, a horse, and a goat each drinking from bottles, standing close together in an ornate setting with floral and geometric patterns in red, cream, and blue tones. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

Credits

Client: Wostok
Founder: Joris van Velzen

Production: Petrick Animation Studio, Natalia Bazina
CD: Natalia Bazina, Misha Petrick
Director: Natalia Bazina, Ilya Buzinov
Art Director: Denis Pisarev, Ilya Buzinov
Producer: Alena Antonyan
EP: Polina Fufarova
Managing Director: Nadya Petrick
Script: Natalia Bazina, Ilya Buzinov
Environment Design: Anastasia Tarakanova, Denis Pisarev
Character Design/Layout: Denis Pisarev
Animatic/Lead Animator: Ilya Buzinov
2D Cel Animator: Alexey Bovkun, Lena Khan, Vova Orlov
3D Bottle Modeler/Animator: Sergey Pronin
AI Visual Enhancement: Denis Pisarev, Ilya Buzinov

Music/sound design: Klangtextur
Composer: Darmen Yesnazarov
Sound Design: Daryn Ady

Stephen Price

Stephen is the co-founder/CD of Stash Media Inc. and the executive editor of Stash Magazine and the Stash Permanent Collection.
Follow on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram

Category: Advertising, CG, Character Animation, Featured, Motion Design · Tags: Klangtextur, Misha Petrick, Petrick, Wostok