There are celebrations galore as a Stockton-based animation company has won a contract with one of the UK’s leading radio stations. Husband and wife team Back 2 Front Animation has won a contract to create a series of “breakfast bites” for Real Radio.
For this, the team has designed animated caricature versions of breakfast show hosts Gary Philipson and Lisa Shaw, which react to ten humorous sound bites chosen by the presenters from their live shows.The award-winning animation company, which made its name by producing a series of “shorts” for popular UK animation channel Nickelodeon, found out about the opportunity with Real Radio on social networking site Twitter and responded instantly, winning itself the contract.
Creative director of Back 2 Front Animation Talib Kadhim said: “Real Radio has the same sense of humour as us and because of this, they loved the work we produced for them.
“This is a fantastic marketing opportunity for us as it means that we are mentioned on the local radio, but mostly we just see it as a great project where we have been let loose to use our funny bones as much as we like.”
And the Real Radio Breakfast presenters have also thoroughly enjoyed working with Back 2 Front. Gary said:“This has been a really exciting project to work on, something that hopefully captures the spirit of Real Radio Breakfast with Gary and Lisa in a new and innovative way. We just took audio clips from the show that made us laugh and let Back 2 Front loose on them.”
Lisa added: “We love the results and have had nothing but great feedback from our listeners as we post a new one every Monday morning on www.facebook.com/realradionortheast. What is even more gratifying is that Back 2 Front is in Teesside, so the entire project is North East born and bred.”
Back 2 Front has also been involved in other major projects, with more lined up in the near future. Talib’s wife and creative director Sarah Kadhim said: “We have recently completed an i-phone application with the London-based production company ‘Somethin’ Else.’“To coincide with Malorie Blackman’s latest book, ‘Boy’s Don’t Cry’, we produced an animated baby which users need to look after. We have actually been approached again to add different baby outfits to the application, which is quite funny as I have just recently had my own baby.”
Despite desires to work with Nickelodeon again, the Back 2 Front team is now involved in developing two in-house projects, with one being aimed at pre-school children and the other targeting the teen and young adult market.
The team is also working on two graphic novels with hopes to launch them at the San Francisco Comic Convention next year.
Back 2 Front, which is celebrating its fifth birthday this year, has five core members, although this number varies depending on project sizes. Talib said: “With our new facilities in Stockton Business Centre, it is easy for us to take on more staff and space as and when we need it.
“We also enjoy getting in freelancers as they help us to expand not only our technical and artistic knowledge, but our cultural knowledge as well. This is always beneficial to what we do.”
For more information on Back 2 Front Animation, please visit www.b2fanimation.com.
