New York City-based creative services agency Black Spot is launching design practice Aviary, which will complement Black Spot’s suite of marketing service offerings.

Aviary will be led by Alex Reyes, who most recently served on NBCUniversal’s creative team. While there, Reyes worked with Black Spot on numerous projects, including the launch of streaming service Peacock. Prior to that, Reyes worked with Disney, Nokia, Showtime, Imaginary Forces and Raison Pure.

“Alex coming to Black Spot feels like a homecoming. We’ve worked together before on numerous projects big and small and have always done great work as a team. His passion for solving problems with imagery and type is a perfect fit for us,” said Black Spot Founder John Laskas.

“I was attracted to the opportunity because this is a place where you can be yourself … and you can see and feel that with the people around you (though I mostly see them on screen via video conference),” said Reyes, also in a statement.

In the past, Black Spot has provided design services as an “add-on” to its work on launches, trailers, upfronts, sizzles and advertising campaigns. Adding Aviary to Black Spot’s family of companies at Black Spot is a natural evolution for the firm.

“Our aim is to work closely with our clients from the very beginning of their creative process,” said Laskas, “which has led to a surge in the number of design requests over the past few years. We recognize the need to create a dedicated team focused solely on delivering these services. This decision aligns perfectly with our commitment to meeting all of our clients’ evolving needs.”

Aviary’s newly-launched services include:

– Concepting: inspiration boards, idea creation, research, storyboards;

– Key art and show packaging;

– Animation of static for social media, GIFs, cinemagraphs;

– Walk-on graphics for presentations.

Below are some examples of Aviary’s work:

“The team at Black Spot is an extension of our in-house design team at ABC,” said Lucas Aragon, executive director, design at ABC Television, in a statement. “The introduction of Aviary is exciting for us since it offers additional ways for us to partner and collaborate.”

“It’s not just about the deliverable. It’s about the collaboration,” said Mike Graney, creative director, AMC Networks Content Room, also in a statement. “That’s why I call Black Spot early and often. Their creative approach and production sense has been foundational in many of my projects over the years. Whether that means creative consultation, editorial, or graphic design and animation, they have never failed to build an exemplary team around my project’s goals. Black Spot is a Swiss army knife of creativity and with Aviary they have added yet another indispensable tool to their reputably superb slate of synergetic offerings.”

“There is a reason why our client relationships span over a decade. We’re solving for challenges before issues even come up. With Aviary, Black Spot is continuing our reputation of being an extension of our clients’ creative teams, now in the design arena - it’s a natural extension of everything we do,” said Laskas.

Tags: alex reyes aviary black spot


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