*SPAM SPOT HONORED WITH ANICOMM AWARD 2010

This year Animation Magazine honored LAIKA/house's three-spot stop-motion SPAM campaign with an Anicomm Award, "in which they celebrate the best animated, most original, funniest and all-around awesome commercials of the past year." Directed by Mike Wellins, the SPAM campaign first aired in spring 2009 and recently ran before the 2010 Academy Awards. The spot was created with BBDO Minneapolis and Hormel. Every year, the magazine picks three spots to feature. This year's winners included PSYOP's "The Heist: from Coca-Cola and Studio AKA's "Trainset for Lloyds TSB.

Agency: BBDO Minneapolis
Director: Mike Wellins
Executive Producer: Lourri Hammack

*DIRECTOR NICHOLAS WEIGEL

Our newest Director, Nicholas Weigel adds his unique voice and wonderfully off-kilter vision to the studio's collection of talent. Almost every piece he touches reflects his skewed funny bone and vast animation experience. Before moving to Portland, Nicholas collaborated with Psyop as an Animation Director on Coke: Inside the Happiness Factory and with The Mill on Orangina's Naturally Juicy project. In addition, he developed and directed the award-winning MTV Puberty series while at Hornet Inc./New York. Earlier in his career, Nicholas led W!LDBRAIN's CG department. All this experience, and the guy still laughs at bad jokes.

Read his interview at http://motionographer.com/theater/laika-tostitos-salsa/

*GARY RAKSIS NAMED CFO OF LAIKA

November 9, 2009

LAIKA, Inc., the Portland-based animation studio whose first feature film, Coraline, has been a critical and box office success, has appointed Gary Raksis to the post of Chief Financial Officer of the company. The announcement was made today by LAIKA President and CEO Travis Knight. Mr. Raksis, former Head of Strategic Planning and Corporate Finance at DreamWorks Animation SKG, will be responsible for leading LAIKA’s business operations as the studio continues to grow its pipeline of animated feature films, television commercials, music videos, broadcast graphics and short films. In addition, he will focus on exploiting growth opportunities for the company.

"Gary brings an exceptional range of financial management experience to LAIKA that will be invaluable to our evolution and success,” says Mr. Knight. “His extraordinary business acumen, rare creative sensitivity, and steady governance will provide a foundation for boldly innovative and visionary leadership in our business operations. We are thrilled that Gary has joined the LAIKA family."

"I admire LAIKA’s stunning artistic and commercial accomplishments," said Raksis, “and believe my financial experience and entrepreneurial approach will be a great fit with a company looking to expand on a creative vision that has already proven to be powerfully attractive to film-going audiences around the world.”

Mr. Raksis held various roles in financial planning and analysis at DreamWorks SKG before, in 2004, being named Head of Strategic Planning and Corporate Finance for DreamWorks Animation SKG. As a key financial executive at DreamWorks, Mr. Raksis oversaw overall strategic planning and day-to-day corporate finance functions while providing financial and business support required for operational decision making. In addition, Mr. Raksis focused on exploiting growth opportunities and oversaw analysis and operational research supporting DreamWorks’ new projects and businesses.

A graduate of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, Mr. Raksis was previously a research analyst at William O’Neil and Company, an investment information firm that publishes Investor’s Business Daily newspaper.

*LAIKA/house TAKES ART OF CORALINE ON A COAST-TO-COAST TOUR

Portland, Ore, March 30, 2009

Ad agencies across the country got exclusive sneak peaks into the animated world of the 3-D stop-motion film Coraline this February as LAIKA/house, commercial division of LAIKA, hosted special screenings of the blockbuster movie followed by after-parties featuring sets, puppets, real-time stop motion and exclusive behind-the-scenes video of the making of Coraline.

Highlighting two juxtaposed sets, Coraline's perspective-bending bedroom from her "real world" and the deeply saturated set from "the other world," along with stop motion puppets of Coraline, her family and the frightening “Other Mother," Coraline Animators Brad Schiff and Bartek Prusiewiez and Lighting/Cameraman John Ashlee Prat helped to demystify the animation process with hands-on demonstrations for the crowds.

The LAIKA crew also showed off their innovations in rapid prototyping (aka 3-D printing) used in feature film. In Coraline, the movie's lead character had 208,000 potential expressions, which were made by using 320 interchangeable molds of different eyebrow and forehead expressions and 650 different mouth molds. All were created using the 3-D printing approach.

"We're bringing the church to the people," said LAIKA/house President Lourri Hammack. "Coraline is fostering fresh animation inspiration in all mediums. For House, the excitement happens when we take the new creative technologies established during film production and distill them into an unforgettable spot or short-form content."
Based on the film's popularity, the LAIKA/house team may bring back the tours during fall's Oscar nomination season. Stay tuned...

*LAIKA/house EARNS TWO DESIGN HONORS

March 2009

LAIKA/house received two key design and illustration awards from industry publications.

In the February 2009 edition of How Magazine's "In-House Design Annual,"
LAIKA/house was honored with an Entertainment Merit Award for their Animation Reel design and promotional packaging, which is sent to potential clients, advertising agencies and animation libraries. The reel includes a Show Reel DVD, directors' trading cards, illustrator tattoos, customized carpenter pencil with a sharpener and other goodies.

The award-winning designs were created by the team of Lourri Hammack, Jan Johnson, Drew Takahashi, Kirk Kelley and Alise Munson.

LAIKA/house's second award came from 3X3 The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration, an annual of illustrators' work. Character illustrations from the 2007 Starbucks Holiday Campaign
"Pass the Cheer" were awarded Silver Merit Awards in Commercial Animation. LAIKA/house worked with advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy to create three spots from illustrations by Tatsuro Kiuchi. The animation was directed by Aaron Sorenson.Both publications are still on newsstands.

*WATCH BROOKS AD, FIGHT BREAST CANCER

Brooks Run Happy

To celebrate the launch of the video—and encourage you to share it with friends—Brooks will donate five cents for every view of the video between November 13, 2008, and December 21, 2008. Views will be counted at the official viewing sites: brooksrunning.com
and YouTube.com
.
Once the views have been tallied, Brooks will donate up to a maximum of $25,000 to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, earmarked for the support of breast cancer research.
Read more.

*NICHOLAS WEIGEL JOINS LAIKA TEAM

Summer/Fall 2008

Director Nicholas Weigel recently joined the expanding director roster for the commercial studio. Weigel previously worked with Psyop as an Animation Director on "Coke: Inside the Happiness Factory" and with The Mill on Orangina's "Naturally Juicy" project.

In addition, he developed and directed the award-winning MTV Puberty series while working at Hornet, Inc. in New York. He also served as Creative Director of Nick Digital Lab, a full service animation production facility that produced work for Spike TV and Nickelodeon.

"Laika/house and Portland have an alternative creative sensibility that attracted me. The studio offers a rare opportunity to explore new animation methods in all mediums under one roof. There's no excuse not to create great work here," said Weigel.

*ONCE UPON A TIDE

Gesine Kratzner just finished directing some animation for a film being screened at the Smithsonian. See what Stash has to say about it:

"The 10 minute environmental awareness short film, "Once Upon a Tide," is premiering today at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of Natural History. Actor, Linda Hunt, narrated this educational piece produced by the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. The film was produced for aquariums and learning centers throughout the United States and internationally. Portland animation studio, LAIKA/house, created and produced the animation for the short, which is part of the center's Healthy Ocean, Healthy Humans project. The work is from the imagination of LAIKA/house Director, Gesine Kratzner." Watch this film here http:www.healthyocean.org."