Sydney animation house Sixty40 has appointed award-winning animation director Simon Robson who joins the team as creative director.
The BAFTA-nominated British director is headed down under to join Sixty40 following a year directing with MPC Creative and Not to Scale in the U.K. No stranger to local shores, Robson first moved to Sydney in 2010 and soon found himself directing at companies including Animal Logic and Mighty Nice.
His recent work includes animated and live action campaigns for MasterCard, Pernod Ricard (Coca-Cola and Mount Franklin), The Iconic, Kia Motors, Telstra and promos for Australian broadcaster SBS, which won two World Promax Golds and a New York Festival’s Silver World Medal.
Before 2010, Robson was represented by Nexus Productions in London as a commercial director on global campaigns for Nike, Save the Children, Mars and Adidas. During this time, he also directed the animation for British documentary maker Chris Atkins’ controversial Taking Liberties (2006), which was nominated for a BAFTA in 2007.
Robson is the director behind short films Coalition of the Willing (2010) and What Barry Says (2004). Both films screened at global festivals including the Edinburgh Film Festival and Onedotzero, winning best animation awards at the Brooklyn International Film Festival, Flickerfest, London Portobello Film Festival, San Francisco Green Film Festival and Animation at The Hamptons.
On joining forces with Sixty40 Robson states: “I can’t wait to work with a real maverick of the production world and a company whose work typically has an off-the-wall sense of humour. Sixty40 always takes a joyous approach to creating really fun moving image work.”
Sixty40 founder and animation director Mark Simpson says Robson represents his favourite combination of art and craft.
“Simon does heartfelt, charming and funny all mixed with excellent craft,” he explains. “He unites serious storytelling with beautiful motion and I can think of no one else on the planet I’d prefer to team up with creatively.”
Sixty40 EP Will Alexander says: “What a cracking way to start 2015. Robbo is a huge talent and I’m really stoked that we’ve joined forces.”
