On the heels of the recent appointment of Skyler Mattson as CEO, US-based animation and gaming studio Saffronic has expanded its executive team by appointing of Kevin J. Johnson as its first executive creative director.
In his new role, Johnson will collaborate with Kristy Scanlan, the company’s recently appointed SVP of business development to foster relationships with new and existing clients. He will provide clear and effective communication of creative vision, concepts, ideas and solutions to stakeholders, internal teams, and clients, and will lead ongoing productions to ensure timely delivery within budget while exceeding client expectations.
Based in Los Angeles, Johnson has over thirty years of experience in animation. Most recently, he served as supervising director at Universal 1440 Entertainment on the last four seasons of Curious George. Prior, he directed the animated feature Dog Gone Trouble, starring Lucy Hale, Big Sean Anderson and Snoop Dogg, which was distributed by Netflix. He was also the animation supervisor on Fox’s feature film Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked; and the director of The Jungle Book, an animated version of Rudyard Kippling’s classic tale. His rich animation experiences also include head of story on Astroboy, and a creative consultancy on The Zula Patrol, a CGI animated series for PBS. His experience covers all animation styles, from traditional hand-drawn animated films such as The Iron Giant to visual effects spectacles such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
“Kevin brings to Saffronic his expertise across every discipline of animation, and combined with his impressive creative vision, he will be instrumental in guiding our diverse and talented development and production teams as Saffronic continues its commitment to global growth,” commented Saffronic’s CEO Mattson.
Johnson said, “I am excited to dive into the projects with Kristy and the creative teams to bring what I am so passionate about to the table to deliver exceptional quality animation to our clients.”
Saffronic‘s management team includes industry veterans Kumar Chandrasekaran and Prabhakar Sambandan who serve as joint studio directors at the company’s production facility in India. Sally Toms, an agency veteran, runs operations.
Current Saffronic clients include Dreamworks Animation (Gabby’s Dollhouse, Dragons: The Nine Realms, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous), WildBrain and Trioscope.