Paul Harrod is an American animation director, production designer, and

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

with a special emphasis on stop motion.

Early life

Paul Harrod was born in Menlo Park, California on February 5, 1958, to Lee and Betty Harrod.

Education

Paul Harrod attended the California Institute of The Arts, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1986 and a Master of Fine Arts Degree in 1988. He was awarded numerous scholarships and was a teaching assistant for Art School Video Production. Harrod was also Chairman of Student Council Film Series and he curated and presented numerous programs of experimental, documentary and narrative cinema.

Career

Shortly after completing his MFA he sculpted an alien make-up for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and designed and built the sets for the opening title sequence of the 4th and 5th season of Pee Wee's Playhouse (CBS Television) in 1989–90, which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Graphics and Title Design in 1991. In 1990, he designed and art directed the "pin-screen" animated "All I Want" music video for The Lightning Seeds (MCA Records) which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Music Video - Short Form. In 1992 he worked with Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner designing sets for an animated television special, "Edith Ann: Life in the Little Lane" (Omnipotent Productions). In 1992 Harrod began working with Will Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon, art directing stop motion commercials including Chips Ahoy, Cool Mint Listerine (Canada), Fanta, "Fanta Si Boy" "Refrigerator Ride" (Latin America), Levis For Women (USA), Kellogg's Pop-Tarts, "Blade Runner" (USA), California Raisins, "What's For Breakfast?" (USA). In 1995, he worked at the Aardman Studio in Bristol, UK where he designed the first Chevron "Talking Car" commercials. In 1995, he taught animation production and design at

Volda University College Volda University College ( no, Høgskulen i Volda or HVO) is one of the no-tuition state institutions in the system of higher education in Norway. It is located in the town of Volda, Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. History HVO was established ...

(Volda Norway) for six months, graduating the first animation students in Norway. In 1995 he joined the crew of Tim Burton's " Mars Attacks" at Warner Bros. Studios as stop-motion art director, but left the production shortly before the stop-motion unit was dissolved and the execution of Martian sequences fell to Industrial Light and Magic. In 1995, Harrod joined Will Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon full time as Senior Art Director, and shortly thereafter began directing commercials as well. Between 1999 and 2001, he directed five episodes of the television series, " The PJs", for which he received an Annie Award in 2000. He was also the first production designer on the series and he oversaw the production of all the sets and puppets. Harrod went on to direct the first episode of UPN's quirky animated series "

Gary and Mike ''Gary & Mike'' is an American adult animated buddy comedy sitcom that aired on UPN in 2001 and Comedy Central in 2003. It was Big Ticket Television’s first animated show. The show was produced in stop motion clay animation and lasted only one ...

" and he designed and directed the pilot for Warner Brothers' "

Slacker Cats ''Slacker Cats'' is an American adult animated sitcom that aired on ABC Family on August 13, 2007. It was created using Adobe Flash. When the show was first announced, due to an initial lack of information, and its presence on ABC Family, many ...

," both while employed at

Will Vinton Studios William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Oscar for his work ...

. From 2004 to 2014, Harrod directed animated commercials at Bent Image Lab where his clients include

Alltel Alltel Wireless was a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before acquisitions by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, it served 34 states and had approximately 13 million subscribers. As a regulatory condition of the acquisition ...

Wireless,

Kelloggs The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg's, is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg's produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toaste ...

' Twistables,

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

, and Aflac. His spot "Koi Pond," for Tractor Supply Company, was voted one of the 50 best spots of 2006 by Adweek./article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003541858 Since 2008, Harrod has curated and presented a monthly film screening and lecture at Mother's Velvet Lounge in Portland, Oregon. Themes for the series have included "Italian Westerns", "Film Noir", "Dreams, The Subconscious and the Surreal" and "Women and Power". He frequently travels to film festivals all over the world, where he occasionally presents programs of his commercials and television shows. In 2014 Harrod began his own company, Sticky Films, and directed and designed a sequence for the end credits of

22 Jump Street ''22 Jump Street'' is a 2014 American satirical buddy cop action comedy film directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, written by Jonah Hill, Michael Bacall, Oren Uziel and Rodney Rothman and produced by and starring Hill and Channing Tatum. ...

. He lived to London from 2015 to 2017 when he was the co-production designer with Adam Stockhausen on "

Isle of Dogs The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Ham ...

, a stop motion animated feature directed by Wes Anderson, released in March of 2018. The film received praise for its inventive design with Variety noting "Even the garbage in each frame — of which there is plenty, the film's chief setting being a less-than-salubrious enclave called Trash Island — looks hand-picked by production designers Adam Stockhausen (as essential here as he was to the success of "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "Moonrise Kingdom") and Paul Harrod."

Awards/accolades

* 2000: Annie nomination for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Television Production "The PJs" episode "Boys In The Wood" * 2018: Annie nomination for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production "Isle of Dogs" * 2018 Art Directors Guild Award Winner for Excellence in Production Design for an Animated Film "Isle of Dogs"

Family life

Paul Harrod lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, filmmaker

Joanna Priestley Joanna Priestley (born November 25, 1950) is an American contemporary film director, producer, animator and teacher. Her films are in the collections of the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Priestley ...

References

External links

"Paul Harrod IMDb page"

''Joanna Priestley Website''

''Children of Chaos''

"Bent Image Lab"

''Paul Harrod Website''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrod, Paul American film directors American production designers American television directors California Institute of the Arts alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)