September FableFriday: Audrey Spencer, UX/UI Designer

FableVision UX/UI Designer Audrey Spencer is a problem-solver at her core. As a multidisciplinary designer, Audrey has worked across many fields, including medical, game development, and VR/AR design. She has a passion for creative problem solving, thinking outside-the-box, and brings her own dash of whimsy to every project that hits her desk. 

“I love sharing my creative process with others and I’m excited to be doing that at FableVision,” says Audrey. “I’m especially having a blast on a project that we’ll reveal soon – we have an awesome team and such a great connection with the client – it’s been so rewarding to see this come to life.”

Read more to learn about Audrey’s winding journey to FableVision, how she wooed the internet with her elaborate cat drawings, and her battle with DJ Khaled.

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Audrey’s Snapchat drawings featuring Maya and Oskar

What’s your “journey to FableVision” story?
It’s been quite the journey! My degree is in industrial design, so I began my career in product design, working in healthcare designing medical devices. This was around the time when a “cool new app” called Snapchat came out, and with its clunky drawing tools, I started drawing photos of my cats, creating elaborate and harrowing scenes. Apparently the people of the internet liked them, which caught the attention of Snapchat and the media, starting me on a path of creative storytelling for brands like Microsoft, Universal, Pilot, and Snapchat. It was all pretty surreal.  

Pivoting from medical device design, I began working with startups as a one-woman design team, doing everything from industrial design, graphic design, branding, video, and marketing. I worked in a wide range of industries from Tesla coils, to robotic fishing equipment, to AR (augmented reality) hardware. It was very exciting. 

While working with an AR hardware startup, I grew close with some folks at Snap Inc. and began consulting on Snapchat’s user interface, as well as other programs in the works. One of these was Lens Studio, the AR Lens software they were developing, which sparked my interest in virtual reality and augmented reality design. 

Shortly after, I went through a Unity and XR program to broaden my skill set, through which I was introduced to FableVision!

Social media panel at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2016

How did past fields and industries you’ve worked in prepare you for FableVision and the educational industry?
My experience as a student, which was tough, prepared me the most. I’m dyslexic and I’ve always struggled with reading. I have a lot of empathy for kids who are also struggling with any type of learning disability, and I know what they’re going through. In my own life, I’ve learned that this disability can be transformed into an empathy superpower when it comes to storytelling and designing educational experiences. It’s quite rewarding to bring that perspective to the table.

What type of projects do you like to work on?
I like projects that involve humor and a bit of weirdness. I bring my own dose of quirk as it is,  so I appreciate any project that has that creative freedom. I also love a good challenge and managing a lot of moving parts – really, anything that requires problem solving is fun to me.

Group of Snapchat creators

Besides UX and UI, you’ve also developed content for brands like Microsoft and Universal. Can you tell us more about that experience?
In the early days of Snapchat, it was a Wild West for creators working with brands on the platform, and it was really difficult to gain a following with content that expired every 24 hours. 

So, when I and a small group of creators gained traction on Snapchat, brands saw this as an opportunity.  At the time, Snapchat didn’t have an ad program in place, so these brands reached out to us to create content for them.

This led to some really fun jobs, traveling across the country doing work for Microsoft, Universal, Pilot Pens, Shark, Crocs, mobile games, animal shelters, and a bunch of others.

Creating content for brands isn’t too different from what we do at FableVision Studios. The client has an idea and an audience it wants to engage, and we bring that idea to life.  

DJ Khaled

Bill Nye the Science Guy

Tell us about being a Shorty Award finalist for “Snapchatter of the Year”!
What a weird time to be alive. I was up against a few big names, one of which was DJ Khaled, who was pretty well known… and still is. I didn’t go in with any expectations of winning… and I totally didn’t win. But it was a really great award show – I got to rub elbows with Alton Brown and Bill Nye the Science Guy!

Leading up to it, we had to get votes from our audience. So, I found a video of DJ Khaled asking his followers to vote for him and I took that video, edited out where he said “Vote for DJ Khaled,” went through his video history, and basically made a video of him saying to vote for me. I still cringe when I look at it now, and it was purposefully bad, doing it all on my phone in Snapchat from the comfort of my kitchen. But everyone got a kick out of it. If anyone wants to see it, you’ll have to message me and I might show it to you.

What was your most intricate cat drawing and how long did it take?
Well, that would be the cat drawing of Maya splayed out on a bounty of gold coins, gems, and jewels, what you’d expect to find in a treasure chest. I got really into the details and it took a solid nine hours to draw. But Maya deserved it. 

When drawing on Snapchat at the time, it crashed often. And every time it crashed, I’d lose everything. Eventually, I found a way to circumvent that to be able to post things through some trickery. That gave me the freedom to take a few evenings and work on a drawing rather than all at once. Something that drew me to Snapchat was the temporary nature of the content on the platform. I could test out weird ideas, people could see them, like them or not, and then they would disappear. There was something fragile and liberating about it that I really appreciated.

More recent drawing

First Snapchat drawing

Photoshop work

How has your online art evolved?
I have always loved sharing creative ideas with others and people love cats. I’ve tried out all sorts of things with varying degrees of success. 

I've shot skits, made music videos, photoshopped cats as other animals, and started a subreddit that features animals with their faces photoshopped really really tiny.

Even so, my cat drawings have definitely gotten better. I started using a stylus instead of my finger, but if and when I lost that, I discovered that wrapping the stick part of a Q-Tip in foil makes a “decent” capacitive stylus.

What is the dynamic like between Oskar, Maya, and Louie?
I got Maya first. Quickly, I could tell she wanted another cat to play with. She’d sneak up on me, jump on me, and want to play all the time. Eventually, I found Oskar at a shelter. I tried to keep them apart as they adjusted to another animal in the space, but that was impossible. Once I introduced them, they did battle it out a bit, but they’re great friends now. They don’t cuddle like siblings, but they’ll clean each other, play, and chase each other around.

A few years ago, we got Louie. He is a very shy, skittish cat. And introducing them was a challenge: all Oskar wanted to do was chase and play, and all Louie wanted to do was run. But it’s gotten better. We’ve tried to create a safe space for him and he hangs out with us and trusts us a lot more now.  

Maya

Oskar

Louie

Audrey’s Favorites

Favorite plant? I can’t choose a favorite… but I do have five self-contained ecosystems I created: three terrariums and two “jarrariums.” It’s taken them five years to get to this point but they’re finally self-sustaining with only sunlight and a wee bit of water!

Favorite film/tv show? I am really enjoying Evil at the moment. But I always enjoy revisiting King of The Hill and Comedy Bang Bang!

Favorite game? Board: Wingspan. Video: too hard to pick just one, but Her Story, Inside, and Animal Crossing had a huge effect on me.

Favorite recent DIY? I fixed the hose spigot at my house. It had no available parts to buy in a store since it’s so old. So I made my own washers! My next thing to start is refinishing lampshades – I already bought fun fabric, fringe, and tassels.

Elle the chipmunk

Favorite place to find antiques? Estate sales. I love seeing objects in the context that they lived in, and the history surrounding them. Once I buy something, it feels like I’m giving them a new life. 

Favorite homeowner surprise? I’ve been excited about the wildlife outside and have set up cameras to capture videos of all the fun animal visitors! Recently, I’ve befriended the crows and the chipmunks. One chipmunk friend in particular jumps up into my hand when I hold out sunflower seeds.  

Favorite cat (if possible)? I get asked this a lot and I have an answer: it’s Maya. 100%.

August FableFriday: Nick Carbonara, Production Assistant

Production Assistant Nick Carbonara knows nothing brings people together quite like stories and games. His journey has brought him across the spectrum of the video game design process, studying game design and creative writing at NYU, dabbling in programming, and now finding a home at FableVision in the organizational side of producing. Nick’s passionate about relatable themes within unrelatable characters and the tradition of storytelling, something that connects us to our caveman days – when humans would stare at a campfire, imagining stories in their mind, dreaming of what could be. Read below to learn about his North Star (LEGO’s Junkbot Undercover), his favorite narrative works, and past campaign characters!  

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Columbia High School (Maplewood, NJ) Marching Band Days!

What’s your “journey to FableVision” story?
Games have always been a part of my life. Since elementary school, I have played so many games, and loved the ones on the LEGO website, especially Junkbot Undercover. In high school, I played games with a lot of friends, and from there I knew that I wanted to do narrative work in storytelling: that’s always interested me, especially coupled with science fiction and fantasy. 

I focused on narratives in my work at the NYU Game Center, but I ended up being a producer also because you run your own projects there. I realized I liked producing and the organizational side of everything – planning and ensuring we meet deadlines to give us that psychological security. After graduation, I focused on narrative, but also worked as a producer on indie games. 

And that led me to FableVision – this exploration of the production side of media. FableVision is really cool! Everyone has great energy as they create things that help people and educate folks. It seemed like the best place to start that production journey as the environment is very encouraging.

Nick and his mom at his graduation day!

What made you decide to study game design in college?
There are so many small reasons. Building a game is really interesting because you create a system that people themselves have to step into. It creates these scenarios where you’re thinking about the plot but also putting in gameplay, by asking questions like, “how do the mechanics fit with the story? Is there branching? How does that change things?” 

I also like that some games are very social and can bring people together to contribute to a story. And I think there’s the technical component that I enjoy. I do a little programming sometimes – I can look at a script and say, “I can sort-of kind-of maybe kind-of know what is happening here” and I enjoy using those skills. You don’t get to tap into that as much in other mediums.

Presenting at GDC in 2019

What do you think is key to a strong production process?
There are a lot of ways to answer this because production is so multifaceted. The ones that stand out to me are ones you’d expect: milestones, goals, and flexibility. But it's important to think that these goals are not merely practical – they’re also psychological and morale-based. 

In some ways the reason I started moving towards production is because there were projects I worked on in school where I had no idea how I was going to get everything done in time. The idea of having a plan gave me the calm and security I needed to reduce my psychological load to actually do the thing. And for team morale, if you say that you’re working towards a specific vision and can outline it all in a document, that gives you and your team an assurance that you’re going to make something. There may be some upsets, which is where flexibility comes in, but it’s much easier to change plans when you actually have a plan.

Presenting Don’t Split the Party at NYU Game Center Showcase in 2019

What type of projects do you like to work on?
Narrative is something I like a lot – I love storytelling. In that realm, the narrative of projects I like to work on is often a mix of the fantastical, weird, or sci-fi, but with relatable themes.

For my team’s senior NYU capstone, we created Don’t Split the Party, a visual novel-style game about a group of friends who play Dungeons and Dragons and you play as their Dungeon Master, making choices about what happens to them in the campaign. But the friends in real life are fighting about various personal issues and you use the campaign to keep them from having a big falling out. And that was really fun since it had real-world problems instead of just D&D. 

I’m also working on a project right now with others called Untitled Melody. It’s about two friends who move to opposite parts of the U.S. after college to pursue various artistic dreams. Although they're uncertain of their paths, they listen to the same music, which allows them to enter this dream-like state and see each other’s thoughts. It's very abstract and magical. It’s fun to work through real problems of 20-something-year-olds with weird magic on the side.

What would you like to work on in the future at the studio?
In general, each new project always feels a little unique because of the team makeup, the challenge, and the client. As a result, I think that whatever comes my way will be very fulfilling. I do love narrative things, of course, which is baked into most of the stuff we do here at FableVision.

What was your favorite game growing up?
Growing up, I loved LEGO games. I remember this Bionicle point-and-click adventure game where they had to explore the island and solve the mystery; Bionicle was this story-based LEGO line from the 2000s. I also remember the classic LEGO games, like Junkbot, where the main character is a robot who works in an office. 

At NYU I attended Professor Naomi Clark’s lecture, where she mentioned that she worked on the LEGO web games. After the lecture, I talked to her and said, “wait, the LEGO web games?” She explained, “not the big ones like LEGO Star Wars or anything on console,” and I said “No, I know exactly which ones you’re talking about! I played those!” 

And eventually, when I left the lecture hall it was 8 or 9 at night and I called my father and said, “Dad, you’re not going to believe this–”

She was a great advisor and teacher, outside of LEGO-celebrity-status. It was really cool to meet her and work/study alongside her.

Are you currently in an RPG campaign?
Right now, I’m taking a hiatus on RPG stuff because of how busy I am, but for some highlights of other ones I’ve enjoyed: 

A Long Strange Trip was a story that used a preexisting world Ebberon, which is a mix of fantasy and pulp noir – there are detectives, international intrigue, and sometimes science-fiction. My friend took that world and made a story for it inspired by Grateful Dead songs. I played a character who was both a therapist and assassin. It was wild! 

In another, everyone was looking for objects that had powers based on different aspects of reality, but dangerous forces wanted to gather them to assemble more power. My character was a former revolutionary-punk-band-member, but the rest of the band was captured by the state. He was a goofy guy who just stumbled his way through life and hung out with other adventurers. He made a lot of silly mistakes or went on embarrassing adventures that became part of his character. It was a lot of fun to be that slightly-more-clownish, heartfelt personality.

How do you combat writer’s block? What’s your writing experience like?
When I'm trying to wrap my head around a story, I have the hopefully-not-unhealthy habit of talking to myself. I find it’s useful when you’re writing. Sometimes, if I'm stuck, I just go for a walk and tell myself the story out loud. That can be helpful since you can hear it and process it in a straight line, rather than thinking about it all at once. You can think about how it would sound to a reader or a viewer or a player. 

And to get a little more philosophical about it, storytelling is something that humans have always done. They’d just tell stories around a campfire, and I think you can feel closer to that by telling your story out loud.  It helps you answer questions like: “how would I tell my story to others verbally? Would it sound good? What are the exciting bits? What are the boring parts?” 

And then, other than that, I do lots of narrative writing for games when I can. I did some work on short stories way, way back. I’d also like to write for animation and comics one day. 

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More About Nick:

Favorite book: I’m not sure what my favorite-favorite is, but in terms of short stories, I love “Story of Your Life and Others” by Ted Chiang. It was made into the movie Arrival. I also like a lot of graphic novels: one of my favorites is Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon, by writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja.

Favorite show: I like a lot of animated adventure stuff, like The Legend of Korra and Young Justice. The latter deals with realities of being a teen or twenty-something, which are things that I really connect with.

Favorite pasta recipe: A reliable favorite for me is pasta with cream, tomato, and spinach. It’s really tasty, especially with parmesan cheese on it, and it’s an easy option. On special occasions, though, when I don’t have to be too healthy, I love carbonara. Genuinely. Unironically. It’s a fantastic pasta.

Favorite video game: That’s tough. I played a lot of Halo with my friends growing up, so that has a special place because of all the memories. I also really love the game Prey by Arkane Studios.

Favorite tabletop game: I definitely play Dungeons and Dragons the most, but I’m really excited about smaller RPGs. Lady Blackbird and Dread are both so much fun too. 

Favorite rock band: My favorite is The Anix, an industrial rock act from Los Angeles. I also like David Bowie a lot – my friends and I used to listen to David Bowie when we played Halo. 

Sputnik

Sparky

Apollo

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.