Animation Studio Cirkus Enjoying Its High Wire Act

What’s not to like about the circus?  It’s got clowns, death-defying acts and animals galore, all mixed up in an enticing mix that’s at once family-friendly and sexy, too.

You can say the same thing about Cirkus, the free-wheeling and energetic animation company based in Auckland, New Zealand.  As presided over by Executive Producer and Founder Marko Klijn—he goes by the title Ringmaster, if you must know—the company has been building a studio that generates whimsical, playful work for major brands and agencies, created by a group of talented animation directors and producers based around the world.

 
Among Cirkus’ projects are Australian spots for McDonald’s that mix live action and animation, and an ongoing series of TVCs for Comfort, a Unilever fabric softener, that run in the Asian market.  In those ads, all of the characters are molded out of different types of cloth, creating an alternative world where everyone responds instinctively to the fresh scent of the product.

 
Cirkus has also produced a short film for Kimberly Clark’s Huggies brand of disposable diapers titled “Free to Be,” which takes a mother and her infant child on a fantastic trip through a variety of constantly-changing environments.  The spot appears to include just about every animation genre under the sun, from stop motion to CGI to traditional hand-drawn animation.  Makes you want to rush out and have a baby. 

 
Klijn—a Dutchman who’s been living in New Zealand so long he’s picked up an accent—is no stranger to the animation scene.  He was a founding partner of JAM Design in New Zealand back in the 1990s, then opened a company called FAT, Ltd., which produced live action and animation, before founding Cirkus in 2006.  The company works in a range of techniques, from traditional 2D cel to 3D and mixed media.   

 In addition, the studio also draws on a wider group of regular freelance contributors who are based in Australia, France, Holland and the US.  This allows the company to “contract and expand at a touch,” Klijn adds, essentially facilitating a round the clock hour workflow in which teams of animators and designers can pass projects along from one to another, each moving the job forward as they go.

 As a way to illustrate this concept, the Cirkus team came up with an idea they call the Exquisite Corpse, in honor of the technique started by painters of the Surrealist movement in Paris back in the 1920s. The term refers to a sketch or work of art that was passed from one artist to another, with each adding to the piece as they got their hands on it.  The Cirkus version, available on their web site, is basically the same concept—users send in concepts for where the narrative is going to go, and Cirkus animators animate to it.

 
So far, the company has produced four such episodes, with more on the way.  Klijn says he expects that Cirkus will keep this concept going for a least a year.  “Our idea is to make this as interactive as possible,” he says. “We find it extraordinarily exciting and interesting. It’s a combination of story line and animation that is going to be bizarre.  But hey, we like the bizarre, we’re animators.”  

 There are several goals behind the Exquisite Corpse, Klijn adds—one is to help create buzz for Cirkus in the online and animator communities, another is to help them define the culture of the company—engaged, clever, progressive, etc.  There’s also the interest in developing more short-form content, an example of which the Exquisite Corpse project will eventually become. And it’s also designed to expose the company to young and relatively unknown animators who could in turn one day be called on to animate projects for Cirkus’ agency clients.  “Our hope is that this project communicates what Cirkus is about,” Klijn adds “We’re a strong, playful and democratic brand, determined to demystify the animation process, not just for creatives, clients and producers within the industry, but for anyone else out there as well.”

 
Cirkus currently has no formal international network for representatives, which is sort of how Klijn wants it.  “We’re as free as a bird, and I intend to be that way,” he quips.  “I like to keep our options open, although we do enjoy working with different companies and representatives, as well as to team up with other people, to keep ourselves flexible in terms of production capability.”  In the States they have an informal relationship with Interspectacular, a motion graphics and design shop based in Manhattan.  “It’s a natural relationship that’s further enhancing our palette and service,” Klijn explains.  “As a matter of fact, we like partnering with design and animation companies on a continuous and ongoing basis, as it facilitates that 24 hour workflow process, which we strongly believe strongly in.  We also find it can refresh and rejuvenate your creative as well at the same time.”

 
Asked to sum up Cirkus in a few words, Klijn says, “We’re a hard working bunch, a fun company with a very flexible structure that’s strong on storytelling.  What I think really sets us apart is our out of the box thinking.  Because we’re smaller we have to be more clever about how we get things done.  Our problem-solving approach is always going to be a little bit different, because it’s tailor-made to fit our organization.  It gives us a unique perspective on things.”