Nathan Love Revitalizes Beloved Publix Mascot

When Publix Super Markets and agency 22squared needed a way to breathe new life into Plato, the grocer’s long-time dinosaur mascot, they called upon the design and animation expertise at Nathan Love. The studio updated the character, yanking the newly decked-out dino from his traditional 2D shell into a vibrant 3D world to produce a four-spot campaign.

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The revitalized Plato retains all the hallmarks of the classic character, but set in a world of lush color and vibrant objects – the soccer balls, skateboards, sprinklers and rollercoasters that keep the daring dinosaur entertained while encouraging kids to live an active, healthy lifestyle.

“Publix wanted to explore the idea of modernizing this character to appeal to contemporary child audiences, as well as to raise the overall production value, and we embraced that challenge,” noted Founder and ECD Joe Burrascano. “We felt it was important to keep the essence of the design intact, faithfully translating Plato into the 3D world, while both preserving a classically cartoonish tone and taking advantage of the extra detail that the medium allows. We ended up creating a playful world worthy of any child’s imagination.”

The new campaign is just the latest entry in a long line of energetic animated work from the studio. In particular, 22squared sought out Nathan Love’s assistance with this project after being impressed with a cast of adorable characters that the studio created for their Baskin-Robbins campaign in 2010.

Downloads:

Credits:

Client: Publix Super Markets, Inc.
Spot Titles: “Roller Coaster” :15, “Sprinkler Race” :15, “Skate Park” :15, “Encouragement” :15
Air Date: April 1, 2013

Agency: 22squared
Producer: Karen Burke
Associate Producer: Kori Skaltsas
Creative Director: Dennis Wolfe
Associate Creative Director: Eric Burke
Senior Copywriter: Mindy Adams
Client Leadership: Lynda Marsh

Production Company: Nathan Love
Executive Producer: James Braddock
Executive Creative Director: Joe Burrascano
Head of Production: Derrick Huang
Producer: Dennis Samatulski
Director: Joe Burrascano
Project Lead: Natasha Saenko
Concept Art and Design Leads: Sigmund Lambrento, Jim McKenzie
Additional Design: Jon Upton
Storyboards: Matt Haber
Character Modeling: Danica Parry
Additional Character Modeling: Pedro Conti
Lead Technical Director: Lukas Wadya
Animation Leads: Tony Travieso and Doug Litos
Animators: David Lee and MinSeok Jeon
Environment Modeling and Layout: Eric Xu, Danica Parry, Sari Rodrig, Danielle Charles
Additional Modeling and Texturing: Ken Lee, Jon Upton
Lighting and Rendering Lead: Natasha Saenko
Additional Lighting and Rendering: Eric Xu, Sari Rodrig
Particle FX: Andy Guttormsson
Compositing Lead: Sohee Sohn
2D Animation: Will Pittas, Jim McKenzie

Music and Sound Design: Drew Skinner Sound

About Nathan Love:

NATHAN LOVE is an innovative animation, design, and development studio located in NYC. Driven by a passion to tell great stories and connect with audiences around the globe, Nathan Love develops memorable characters, imaginative worlds, and engaging narratives for television, film, Web, books and video games. Clients and collaborators include Kellogg’s Froot Loops, McGraw-Hill Education, Chips Ahoy, NBC-Universal, and Nickelodeon Studios.