Fliiip Design and Strange Beast are two animation studios I keep following in, one is in Shanghai and another one is in London. They are not very large animation studios, but offer distinctive artists the chance to direct the projects with strong personal voices.
Studio Features
- Stylistic and Artistic Visuals
In studios, the personal artistic style is highly valued. Despite being commercial works, they still carry a strong artistic value.
- Open-minded Aesthetic
Because they gather many independent artists, each project can look completely different by applying wide range of styles, techniques and media. The crew are willing to try something experimental, which creates a lot of stunning and fresh ideas
- Business Model
They mainly produce ads for brands and music videos, but they encourage directors to do the un-commercial work.
Most projects are small, but more varied.
For artists a strong style who are not yet being well-known, this mode looks perfect for them.
Requirements
I found that all directors of stylistic animated shorts are always deeply passionate about the topic they want to talk in projects. This passion drives a strong desire to express their opinions, observations, or feelings through the animation. In Anna Ginsburg’s projects, she often pays attention to female experiences and sexuality, and fully expresses her styles and views in personal projects. Although she loses money from those projects, her outstanding works lead charities and brands come to her (Ginsburg, 2021). It remains me to keep creating the work that can represent my idea and posting, it allows clients have a reference from my previous work and find me.
Besides that, the director is also a comprehensive role in my view. From Anna Ginsburg(Ginsburg, 2025) and Samuel Patthey(Patthey, 2021)’s experience, both have studied animation in university and spent years in various projects. Especially the independently produced work, it does not just make them become a good animator, but also accumulate the experience on the path to becoming a director. The experience in the other role (such as editing, music, voice acting etc.) can help a director understand the entire production well, and even develop something creative.
Support
It’s glad to see many excellent directors can fully realize their ambition from the personal projects. However, Anna also mentioned about the difficulties every time they do the creative work with low budget or no funding. She Introduces the BFI Short Form Animation Fund, it can be a big support for the new team in its early stage (Ginsburg, 2021).
Fliiip Design also have an internship program, which allows interns complete a personal work with the help from team.
Bibliography
Ginsburg, A. ‘The Power of Imagery to Break Codes’. Interview with Anna Ginsburg. Interview by Oulmi, J. Available at: https://metalmagazine.eu/en/post/anna-ginsburg (Accessed: 23 Nov 2025).
Ginsburg, A. (2021) ‘Anna Ginsburg \ Animation One-To-Ones’. Interview with Anna Ginsburg. Interview by Skwigly Online Animation Magazine. 17 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdSOTEG4JfA(Accessed: 23 Nov 2025).
Ginsburg, A. (2025) ‘Anna Ginsburg: Drawing From Life’. Interview with Anna Ginsburg. Interview by Hey, A. 11 July. Available at: https://magazine.shots.net/news/view/anna-ginsburg-drawing-from-life (Accessed: 23 Nov 2025).
Patthey, S. (2021) ‘Imperceptible Movements Created: Interview with Samuel Patthey ‘Ecorce’ (Swiss Animation Portraits 2021)’. Interview with Samuel Patthey. Interview by ZF Team. 02 June. Available at: https://www.zippyframes.com/index.php/interviews/samuel-patthey-interview (Accessed: 23 Nov 2025).
Radic, M. (2025) ‘Matea’s Travels: Interview with the ‘Paradaiz’ Animation Short Director, Matea Radic’. Interview with Matea Radic. Interview by Bobrowska, O. 27 August. Available at: https://www.zippyframes.com/interviews/matea-radic-interview (Accessed: 23 Nov 2025).