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At first glance, it would seem that the principals of Culver City’s Charlie Co., Chris Pagani and Ryan Riccio, were men of military background. Why else the name? But Charlie Co. is actually a way to incorporate both men’s first names — Christopher — even though Riccio goes by his middle name, Ryan.
“When we were thinking about names, we first thought of C squared, and then got to C company,” says Riccio. “Charlie Company was a playful way to spin it and early on it got shortened to Charlie Co.”
The two started Charlie Co. ten years ago, in 2004, but they’ve known each other since they were both students at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 1994. Pagani was studying illustrating and Riccio was studying computer art and film, just as computers were beginning to become a much more intrinsic part of design.
“We always had a creative synergy,” says Riccio. “One of our dreams in college was to have our own shop and continue that synergy moving forward.”
That dream ultimately came true, it just took a while.
After Pagani graduated, he made his way to Los Angeles and Riccio soon followed. Pagani landed a job at creative agency Belief, and got Riccio a job there as well.
“We were the first two creatives at that company,” says Pagani.
“Belief was one of the companies that was part of the desktop revolution,” says Riccio. “That’s where we cut our teeth. We started to understand the broadcast environment, working on main titles, redesigns and the overall realm of broadcast entertainment.”
Both men eventually went freelance, working with their own clients on soup-to-nuts work. To save money, they shared a rented office space in Venice, Calif. Remembering their college dream, they made the logical decision to come together and form their own company.
The company’s first headquarters was in Santa Monica, and it only recently made the move to Culver City’s arts district, where Pagani and Riccio feel the company has plenty of room to grow.
Since forming Charlie Co., Pagani and Riccio have developed long-standing relationships with many clients, including NFL Network, which is just down the street from them in Culver City, Sony, DirecTV, Spike, HBO and SyFy.
“That’s how we’ve grown, very organically,” says Riccio. “We are very passionate about the creative we do here. We’ve always been more artists and producers than salespeople, and we’ve really prided ourselves on getting that word-of-mouth-type business. We’ve always given our clients a lot of variety of creative.”
That variety is evident in Charlie Co.’s work, which ranges from eye-catching 3D idents for HBO’s Game of Thrones to a fantastical promo for Bellator’s PPV match between Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz to a colorful type-heavy animated promo for Pivot.
HBO: Game of Thrones IDs from Charlie Company on Vimeo.
Bellator PPV 45 from Charlie Company on Vimeo.
PIVOT: Random Acts of Awesome_Lottery from Charlie Company on Vimeo.
With that work and much more behind them, Charlie Co is now ready to grow the company into its next decade. Pagani and Riccio hired a head of business development, Jane Hilary Gross, to find new opportunities, while both men continue to put a personal touch on every project they accept.
“The goal moving forward is to let people know about us,” says Pagani. “We’re one of the industry’s best-kept secrets. We’re different things to different clients, whether it’s live-action or great kinetic typography animation. This is a conscious step to let our clients know that we can do all of these things well.”
Most recently, Charlie Co. refreshed DirecTV’s Audience Network, after rebranding the network in 2012. It also created live-action 3D idents for the NFL Network and the company just wrapped an interactive campaign with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL Network for its app, NFL Now.
AUDIENCE 2014 Montage from Charlie Company on Vimeo.
NFL Network: IDs Montage from Charlie Company on Vimeo.
In today’s cluttered and crazy environment, creative agencies are called on to do everything from straightforward on-air promos, to network rebrands and refreshes, to flashy digital campaigns.
“The challenge is that things are moving very fast,” says Riccio. “Everyone’s expecting more content because of digital needs. We have to plan our shoots so that we can account for Web content, YouTube campaigns and on-air promos. We have to maintain that creativity while we understand all of those different platforms and make the campaigns for each of them distinct.”
Even with all of that on their plates and growth on the horizon, Pagani and Riccio make a point of keeping the work personal.
“There is no B team here,” says Pagani. “There is Ryan and me as partners and creative directors and either both or one of us will be on every project throughout its lifespan. We enjoy being a boutique house. We are looking for growth but we are not necessarily looking to take every job.”
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