International Women’s Day

The wonderful Anna Mantzaris worked with Saatchi + Saatchi / Global Women’s New Zealand to animate this hilarious take on a woman in the workplace and career-limiting moves.

Watch the short here.

The punch line? (spoiler alert) … nothing is as career-limiting as becoming a mother.

Sexism, like racism, still exists and thrives – especially regarding salaries and opportunities. In a Creative Review article, Manztaris discusses some of the issues she has seen in the animation and commercial space:

As directors, women often get lower budget projects and with the higher budget projects it’s like the more invisible women are …

It’s as if people don’t really trust women with big budget projects in the same way.

I’ve worked in large architecture firms and advertising agencies, as well as an office of the city of New York and smaller specialty firms here and there. I worked with some wonderful people, and have been given some great opportunities, but I also faced plenty of sexism, sometimes clear, but often quiet. Once I had my son, I returned to agency work for almost a year, but realized my work as an animator could be done more effectively on freelance terms, so here I’ve been happily since then. It’s taken me a long time to be in a place where I’m regularly getting good, creative opportunities…but I’m here! And the only way to go is up.

Fresh looks

Somehow a year has passed…so many thoughts I neglected to write down. But, still here. And perhaps that, in itself, is success.

One day soon I will go back through things I marked and shared over the last months and note them here for future reference. But since I am always two steps behind, for now I will just jump back in to this post.

I haven’t seen the show, Between the World and Me (HBO Original), but I did read the book some years back, and I just saw the title sequence on Art of The Title’s Top 10 Titles for 2020.

It’s the work of Elastic, directed by Hazel Baird. I love the combination of collaged video, photos, torn paper, stop motion, and illustrations. It’s a fresh energy and I want to see more!! I am drawn to this style lately, so keeping it in mind for a future project.