Axis Studios unveils distinctive new brand identity
Skwigly
Axis Studios, the multi-award-winning animation and visual effects house, has unveiled new branding, a new showreel and a new website in a move to streamline and unify the studio’s diverse portfolio of work. Previously operating as three individual brands – Axis Animation, axisVFX and Flaunt Productions – the company has consolidated as Axis Studios Group to unify its offering to its global roster of clients.
The new branding, created by graphic designer and illustrator, Nic Shuttleworth, encompasses a number of core elements that come together to create a distinctive look and makes the Axis Studios brand instantly recognisable. The studio’s new logo uses a varying palette of colours to reflect the creative flexibility and extraordinary breadth of work Axis produces.
Axis Studios has also released its latest showreel, featuring standout work for global clients including Universal Studios, BBC, Riot Games, Netflix, Microsoft Game Studios, Sega and Blizzard Entertainment.
In December this year Axis will be 20 years old. Over those twenty years, we’ve changed a lot as a studio and this unifying of our branding is the culmination of that. More than ever, we are sharing projects, opportunities, people, ideas, talent, tools, and creativity across all the studios. The timing just feels right to bring us all even closer together.
–Richard Scott, CEO of Axis Studios
We strived to retain existing brand elements from the three studios which were already well-liked and recognisable. In reducing the studios into a single brand, we simplified our core assets leaving only the purest elements, a bold graphic manifestation of who Axis Studios is, both as an organisation, and creative individuals. This will continue to allow flexibility and playfulness when bringing all the elements together, and will enable Axis Studios to produce compelling communications with a high degree of individuality across a wide range of projects.
-Nic Shuttleworth, branding designer
Axis Studios is an award-winning entertainment company, founded in Glasgow in 2000 by CEO Richard Scott, in partnership with Dana Dorian, Stuart Aitken and Graham McKenna. Since its inception, it has grown substantially, tripling its turnover to £15m between 2015 and 2018.
It boasts an international team of directors, visual effects supervisors, designers, artists, animators, and producers, working across three studios, in Glasgow, Bristol and London. As well as being the largest studio in Scotland Axis also has one of the largest animation and visual effects teams in the UK.
Axis forged its reputation with the biggest video game publishers, producing many award-winning trailers such as the much-vaunted trailer for Dead Island (Deep Silver), which won a Gold Cannes Lions, The International Andy Award and many more.
Axis then moved into other areas of entertainment, such as television, film, and theme parks. Recent work in these areas has seen Axis win awards including a Daytime Emmy Award for Lost in Oz (Amazon Studios), an AEFA Award for Happy (SyFy/Netflix), a BIFA Award for visual effects on the feature film Early Man (Aardman Animations/Studio Canal), and Royal Television Society Craft Award for Kiss Me First (Channel 4/Netflix).
Axis is currently working on developing its own original content and has recently completed animation and visual effects work on the Helping Hand episode of Love Death + Robots (Netflix) and season two of the series Happy (SyFy/Netflix).