July FableFriday: Adam Gravett, Artist/Animator

Adam Gravett had an artistic goal in mind and just needed to figure out his path. “Ever since I was a little kid, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do or how I was going to get there, but I was certain that I wanted to be in the field of art and animation,” says Adam. 

With a keen interest in aliens, animals, wizards, knights, and other creatures, Adam breathes a creative, humorous, and cartoony aesthetic into his character designs and animation at FableVision. Inspired by other artists and the wonderful work that he stumbles upon, Adam continues to improve his illustrations, discover new techniques, and grow his incredible portfolio. 

Keep reading to learn more about Adam’s creative process, hopes for future projects, and unparalleled hat collection. 

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What’s your “journey to FableVision” story?
It began back in 2016, when two ambassadors for Lesley University came to my high school art class and talked to us about the college. Lesley ended up being the college that I attended. During my junior year, I took a character design class taught by FableVision’s Bob Flynn, Director of Art and Animation. I had previously heard about the class and I knew immediately that I needed to take it. FableVision stayed on my radar for potential post-college work. Bob told me that he liked my work and wanted to keep in touch. 

A year later I ended up seeing him and taking a tour of the old FableVison studio space. I’m happy I did that because soon after that COVID-19 started, and I moved home to Albany, New York. Bob contacted me and I started doing some freelance animation work for FableVision. A year and a half later, I received an offer for a full-time position as an artist/animator, and moved back to Boston to start the next chapter of my life. 

How did you get into art and illustration?
Ever since I was little, I knew that I wanted to make cartoons. I loved watching SpongeBob SquarePants and I realized from a very young age that I wanted to make something like that. I never thought about doing anything else.

Where do you draw inspiration from for your art? What types of characters do you like to create and animate?
I’m inspired by other artists I find on Twitter and Instagram. There are so many talented people out there, which encourages me to keep drawing and making art. I always enjoy drawing fun little creatures – animals, aliens, and monsters are so much fun. 

Can you walk us through your creative process?
When it comes to drawing, it usually starts with me looking for reference images to help me get some ideas on where to start. Using those, along with the knowledge of what kind of feeling is supposed to be perceived when looking at the art, I’ll make a few versions of whatever it is I’m drawing. I’ll push certain elements to ensure the art is as dynamic as possible. 

When it comes to animating, I’ll start by looking at what I’m going to animate, and I act out the movements myself to get a feel for how the characters are supposed to move.

What would you like to work on in the future at the studio?
I’m a big fan of longer series of animated shorts, like the NoiseFilter series or The Paper Girls Show, a Global Tinker and FableVision collaboration. In a similar format, I’d love to design and animate alien characters based in space. I’m a big sci-fi fan, so getting to work on a project like that would be a dream come true. 

When you go to a museum or art show, which works do you look at first?
When it comes to museums and other art shows, I want to consume as much art as I can. I have a very simple solution –  I head towards the closest thing near me and try to circle through all of the works.

Tell us more about your hat collection.
I got my first hat back in high school. I saw it out of the corner of my eye while shopping in the mall with my mom, and just thought it looked neat. I started wearing it every day and I eventually bought more. Some of my hat highlights include my Squid Hat, Umbrella Hat, and my most recent addition, my Bidoof Hat.

Adam’s Favorites

Favorite cartoon: SpongeBob Squarepants is easily my favorite cartoon. It was the first cartoon I remember watching and it’s partially the reason why I am where I am today. 

Favorite movie: I don’t think I’ve ever watched a movie more times than I have with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I saw it four times in theaters and five more times after that.

Favorite game: Destiny – I’ve put too much time into that game, both playing it and learning about its deep DEEP lore.

Favorite hat: My hats are like my children – you can’t choose one over the other… except my gray flat clap with winter flaps (but don’t tell the others).

Favorite vacation destination: Saint Martin, a part of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea. My parents have a timeshare there and it is absolutely beautiful and a great place to scuba dive.  

Favorite snack: Pretzels, both soft and hard. Top tier snack.

Favorite New York state attraction: The Saratoga Race Track.

A Backstage Tour of Our Rebrand

Kirra’s yellow chick that changed it all.

Everything changed with the chicken. It was the fall of 2021 and designer Jamie Griffin had just delivered her latest batch of possible new FableVision logo options. A Slack message popped up from FableVision President and Co-Founder Gary Goldberger —“Oh my god, did you see the chicken?” Just another morning at FableVision.

In January, we revealed FableVision’s 25th anniversary makeover by showing off our new logo. Today, we’ll take you behind the scenes of FableVision’s new look and share how a young artist named Kirra became the breakthrough surprise of our rebrand story. 

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When Peter. H Reynolds, Paul Reynolds, Gary Goldberger, and John Lechner founded FableVision in 1996, Peter designed the studio’s original logo. We’ve always had a soft spot for nostalgia, so he went for a “retro” or “diner-esque” vibe that featured his signature handwriting. The orange and yellow bursts came from the design software’s “star shape” tool and brought some energy and movement to the logo.

Our original logo, designed by Founder Peter H. Reynolds.

We love Peter’s original logo—it served us well for 25 years! As FableVision grew, evolved, and expanded its projects, we decided to honor our anniversary with a fresh look. We invited graphic designer Jamie Griffin, a friend of the studio, to help us explore a new look, while remaining true to who we are. 

“I generally approach branding projects by first gaining an understanding of what the client is all about,” says Jamie. “If the project is a brand redesign, I find out what is working and what it is about the current brand they want to change. From there, I have a good foundation to start exploring ideas and solutions for a logo identity that is unique and memorable, and creatively represents who they are.”

We wanted to address a few things in our rebrand. “Over the years we'd received a few lighthearted remarks around people having a hard time reading the cursive, mistaking the F for a T—which would read TableVision,” says Bob Flynn, FableVision’s Director of Art and Animation. Therefore, we focused on improving legibility and creating a logo that works well on both white and black.

Our new logo!

“I was tasked with the following goals,” says Jamie. “I needed to keep the ‘hand of the artist’ feel, make the logo more legible, modernize it a bit, keep it fun and playful, explore a burst-like element, develop an ‘FV’ mark, and add the word ‘studios.’”

As Jamie researched, sketched, and brainstormed, and we weighed in on her suggestions, we decided on a typographically playful option. This helped with legibility, while staying fun and creative. She incorporated the word “studios” and suggested a gray background, that our team later turned into a gray burst, to recall our original red, orange, and yellow starburst.

We love the gray burst and swirl icon for the “O.”

In one of our early sketches, Jamie explored replacing the “O” in FableVision with various doodles. “The next step was to explore ways to incorporate a hand-drawn element using the ‘O’ in FableVision and pushing the playfulness of the typography even further,” explains Jamie. She sent a few options for consideration. Among them was the gold swirl you see here. “Through this collaborative process, we created the swirl icon for the ‘O.’ It pays homage to FableVision’s use of watercolors throughout the years and the ‘hand of the artist’ aesthetic that FableVision loves so much.”

Jamie had also shared a chicken, a baby yellow chick, as another option to replace the “O.” We couldn’t stop talking about it and when we asked her the story behind it, we found out that her daughter Kirra, a 15-year-old high school sophomore, designed it. 

“I was always encouraged to draw from a very young age and I’ve always loved drawing,” says Kirra. “I like to try out all different styles of art. I started making art as soon as I could hold a pencil—I can’t really remember not drawing.”

It was amazing to work with Kirra and watch her make her mark. We’re lucky to collaborate with young people during various co-design sessions on our projects, but to have her as part of our logo redesign process was the icing on our rebrand cake. We asked Kirra if we could see more of her doodles. That opened the door for a dynamic, rotating “logo icon” as Kirra shared her creativity and spark with us, and helped lead FableVision to its future.

Some additional doodles that Kirra drew for us as we workshopped the dynamic logo.

“I designed the chick, the flower, and the planet, and the chick is my favorite,” says Kirra. “I enjoy doing art as a hobby and it is something I’m interested in as a career. Listening to music while I create art is my main inspiration.”

Kirra’s flower and planet incorporated into our dynamic logo.

Our 16 icons – stay tuned for more! Can you spot Kirra’s drawings?

And we were certainly inspired by Kirra. Using her many designs as a starting point, we developed 16 changing icons. Sometimes our logo features Kirra’s joyful, pink flower, and other times it incorporates a silly, neon alien. 

We have more logo icons in the making. Keep checking in with us for fun icons that depict holidays, seasons, or favorite animals that are designed by our staff and creative community. “The beauty of the dynamic logo is that it gives us flexibility and reflects the joy and humor that we bring to our projects, while keeping our audience excited for more,” says Gary Goldberger.

And voila – after many discussions, sketches, designs, and brainstorming sessions, we love our new rebrand and are thrilled to keep sharing it.

We’re only 25 years into our 200-year mission and we’ll continue expanding our studio, partnerships, and offerings. We cannot wait to keep breaking through educational challenges and inspiring young learners – stay tuned for new logo icons and new projects!

Surprise! Here’s a brand new 17th icon that we just designed.

New Year, New Logo: FableVision Celebrates 25 Years with a Fresh Look

As we celebrate our 25th anniversary, we’re ecstatic to share FableVision’s new logo! We’re continuing to collaborate with amazing partners to create “stories that matter, stories that move.” Our mission to inspire, teach, create lifelong learners, and move people to action has never been more important. Our fresh look pays tribute to the whimsy of our original logo with a more contemporary design to “draw” us into the next chapter of FableVision’s work.

FableVision was founded in 1996 by Peter H. Reynolds, Paul Reynolds, Gary Goldberger, and John Lechner. “Something really special was born when we launched FableVision 25 years ago,” shares Peter H. Reynolds. “We have an incredibly talented team of kindred spirits assembled and it made sense to honor the creativity that drives our studio with a refreshed purpose to do good in the world–and with that came the desire to rethink our logo.”

The original FableVision logo was designed by Peter during an early creative retreat to New Hampshire. The weekend was informally known as the “Let’s Build a Studio” retreat and it was then that the logo took shape. It featured his signature handwriting, and the “hand of the artist,” an aesthetic we’ve always loved, was portrayed through its “retro” or “diner-esque” vibe. 

“Twenty-five years feels like the right time to think about our brand from a fresh perspective,” says CEO Paul Reynolds. “Our mission to move the world to a better place through story, media, and technology has never wavered and continues to drive us.”

The core of who we are remains consistent throughout the years. We have a 200-year mission to move the world to a better place through story, media, and technology. As media continues to emerge and evolve, we want to keep changing with it.

“A lot has happened over the course of our history and as we started to think about what comes next, the redesign embodies a future for FableVision with a larger and more encompassing focus,” adds President Gary Goldberger. “With a new logo and new office, we also have a revived, new energy to take on educational challenges and inspire learners of all ages.”

Our new logo still encapsulates a playful personality. It importantly includes the word “studios,” which wasn’t integrated into our logo until now. The gray burst background calls back to the energy of our original red, orange, and yellow starburst. It works well on white and black and is clearly legible. 

“We like the play on varying ascenders and descenders–who wants to stay ‘inside the lines’ anyway?– and the mix of tilted upper and lowercase letters felt like just the right amount of quirk,” says Bob Flynn, Director of Art and Animation.

To honor our fondness for hand-drawn flair and whimsy, a spiral replaces the O in FableVision. The O is interchangeable with various icon doodles from the artists on our staff and our wider creative community. One image didn’t encompass all that was FableVision, so we decided to add a dynamic design element that can be ever-changing. Sometimes you see our logo, it may feature an alien; other times it may sport a cup of tea. 

“Our new look reflects the spirit, joy, humor, and warmth we bring to all studio projects,” says Sarah Ditkoff, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. “It also has an element of surprise with the changing icons, which is something our clients know us for, and we were able to effectively channel that into a look that will soon become synonymous with our brand.”

While we will love and cherish our original logo, we hope you’re just as excited about our fresh look as we are! Keep an eye out for the new logo and its fun iterations in our future projects. Stay tuned here for updates on new collaborations ahead. 

Scurry over to MICE this weekend!

Squeak.

That’s not the sound of a cheese-hunting rodent, it’s a pencil racing across a page. It’s that time again! For the fifth year, MICE (Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo) returns to Lesley University for two days (Oct. 4-5) of workshops, panels, and exhibitions. 

This year, FableVision Studios is sponsoring a workshop led by Bob Flynn, our director of art and animation. His session – Flipbook Animation – will run on Sunday, Oct. 5, from 11:15 to 12:15 p.m. He will also have a booth at the expo on both days.

We adore and admire Bob at FableVision and often wonder how he juggles everything (we’d put our money on no sleep). He’s a cartoonist, illustrator, and animator specializing in character design and game design. He has a strong passion for comics, having co-created Heeby Jeeby Comix for an all-ages audience. His comics, illustrations, and stories have appeared in publications such as Nickelodeon Magazine and SpongeBob Comics. And, Bob is currently the lead character designer for the cartoon series Bravest Warriors. Did someone say Catbug?

We recently asked Bob to share a bit about his work with MICE and the upcoming workshop. 

How did you first become involved with MICE?
The first MICE was in 2010, and I was very excited to table with my friend Dan Moynihan. It was my first year venturing out into this community where you self-publish comics and show up at festivals and shows to sell them. I've been hooked ever since.

I stay mostly local, but I've also been to similar festivals in Portland (Maine), Chicago, and Toronto — due to fly out to Los Angeles for one in December, too. They're a bit different than the larger 'comic cons' that have sprung up all over because they tend to focus on small press independent publishers and creators. It's a great place to discover new creators just getting into the field of cartooning and comics. Pros who've been doing this for decades now have tables, too!

What is the trick to making a really great flipbook?
For me the trick is to turn off your brain. I often mess around just before bed when I'm half awake. Make it up—improvise. They're disposable and quick, like a doodle. Don't worry about being too careful with every drawing because they go by so fast. Whatever you do will end up looking cool regardless. If a flipbook starts feeling like a chore, you're probably doing something wrong.

Bob's 2013 MICE poster art.

What is your one piece of advice to an upcoming comic artist?
I think it’s easy to get caught up with tools, making something perfect, and comparing yourself to others. The beauty of comics is that it truly is a medium for everyone. Rad drawing abilities are definitely not a prerequisite. Embrace comics in a way that is unique to you. They're a lot of work to write, draw, and put together, so make sure the stories and characters mean something to you. That way at least you'll have fun making them.

Will you be attending MICE? Say hi to Bob for us!