Xerox: Word People, Numbers People

This is one of my favorite memories of working at Perpetual Motion Pictures! I was lucky to get the assignment of directing this commercial.  Ed Koren was one of my favorite cartoonists-- his distinctive style stood out both in design and message and it was a surprise when I met him, how amazingly kind he was and easy to talk with. As the director, I needed to expand his initial drawings into key layout drawings for the animators-- making a couple of dozen more drawings to indicate the action. They needed to look like his work, so I checked them out with him. Ed looked through them, and approved, saying he couldn't tell his drawings from mine. Then he looked at me seriously, asking if it was easy for me to do his style? I assured him that I couldn't have done the drawings if he hadn't done the first ones-- I could copy his style, but I couldn't create it!