“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

Jul 10, 2014

(Christine Muszynski)  To say working at an animator’s studio was a lot of work would be a huge understatement. This morning my class and I had the opportunity to visit with Tony Collingwood at his studio in England.

Started in 1990, Collingwood & Co. is one of Europe’s leading animation houses with over twenty years of experience producing award-winning- animated series for children. This company has created children’s content such as Dr. Seuss’ – The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, The Secret Show, and Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!

Not only did we get to sit down with Mr. Collingwood and have a chat about his latest creation, but we had the chance to tour the building and talk with other employees.  Personally, I felt honored to have the privilege to go around and tour the studio. This allowed my classmates and me to get a better understanding and deeper look at all of the hard-work that goes into creating animated content.

I think there are a lot of different elements that make Collingwood & Co. so successful. The first element would be the chemistry that was present amongst the workers in the studio. As mentioned previously, we had the opportunity to chat with the individuals that make this successful company, and by doing this allowed us to see what successful teamwork looks like. But what I found to be most important (for any career) is to have passion for what you do. While sitting with Mr. Collingwood today, you could see (and even hear) how much he enjoyed doing what he does. When he spoke about content he created in the past and shows being created now and in the future, you could feel his radiant energy fill the room. I personally think that in order to be successful in anything you do in life; you always need to have passion.

During our time with Mr. Collingwood he quoted Pablo Picasso. “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” I quick jotted this down and decided to use this as my title for this blog entry.I felt that this captured the overall feeling of Collingwood & Company and all of their hard work they put forth everyday.

Overall, I would like to thank Mr. Collingwood and his team for welcoming my classmates and me into their work area today. I think I can speak on behalf of all of us and say that we all greatly appreciated everyone taking time out of their day to teach us about what they do.

I look forward to seeing many great things come from this company (especially Ruff-Ruff, Tweet, and Dave coming to Sprout in early 2015)!

Cheers,

Christine Muszynski xx

PS- How awesome does this studio look?? I can only hope to have a fun environment like this to work in one day!

Office

 

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