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Issue No. 04 — Studio & Charter Vol. VII · Autumn 2024

A working studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn · 14 senior animators, in-house

The fourteen who draw every frame.

Humanflipbook is a 14-person animation studio on North 8th Street. No freelancers, no offshore subcontracting, no AI-generated keyframes — a senior two-person team is assigned to every project from first sketch to final sound mix. This is the issue that names them, shows the room they work in, and prints the charter they hold each other to.

The Humanflipbook studio workbench, with three Cintiq tablets and pinned sketches.
Frame 001 / 60 — North 8th Street, 7:42 a.m., before the kettle.
Issue 01 — The Roster

Fourteen seniors. Zero subcontractors.

Every name on this page is full-time, salaried, and based at the North 8th Street studio. Two of them are assigned to your project on day one and stay on it until the last frame is mixed. What follows is a representative four — the rest of the bench is on the public roster.

  • Portrait of Margaret Y. Cho at her drawing station.

    Frame 002 / 60

    Margaret Y. Cho

    Co-founder · Keyframe & AD

    ADC Gold Cube, 2022 — “Bento Loops” for HelloFresh. Leads keyframe direction across the studio.

  • Portrait of Devon Park in front of the cel pegboard.

    Frame 003 / 60

    Devon Park

    Co-founder · Page-turn Rig & Producer

    Built the studio’s proprietary 12-stage page-turn rig. Produces the Glossier and Oatly accounts.

  • Portrait of Imani Ortega with ink and brush.

    Frame 004 / 60

    Imani Ortega

    Senior Illustrator · Ink & Texture

    Hand-inks every campaign’s texture layer. Eleven years at the bench before joining in 2020.

  • Portrait of Theo Lindqvist at the mixing desk.

    Frame 005 / 60

    Theo Lindqvist

    Sound Design · Foley & Mix

    Mixes every final flip in-house. Trained at Berklee; six years at Wieden+Kennedy Portland before Humanflipbook.

Plus ten more — animators, illustrators, and a senior producer. See credited work →

Issue 02 — The Charter

The Human-Only Animation Charter.

Adopted 14 March 2021. Reaffirmed annually each March. Publicly countersigned.

Preamble. Humanflipbook Studio LLC produces animated flipbook content for brands. This Charter governs how that content is made. It is binding on every employee, contractor, and supplier of the studio. It is published so that clients, press, and prospective hires may read it in full and hold us to it.

  1. I.

    No AI-generated keyframes in client deliverables. Every frame shipped to a client shall be drawn, inked, or otherwise authored by a human animator employed by the studio. Generative AI tools may be used internally for reference and rough blocking; they shall not appear in the deliverable.

  2. II.

    No machine-learning upscaling as a substitute for native resolution. Final renders shall be authored at their target resolution. AI upscaling is permitted only in early internal drafts and must be re-rendered at native resolution for delivery.

  3. III.

    No freelancers, no offshore subcontracting, no white-label work. Every credited animator on a Humanflipbook project is a full-time salaried employee working from the North 8th Street studio. Subcontracted animation is prohibited.

  4. IV.

    Two-person minimum per project. Every client engagement is staffed with at least one animator and one producer/illustrator pair. Single-operator deliverables are not offered.

  5. V.

    Public rate card. The studio publishes its rates. Clients shall not be quoted different prices for the same scope on the basis of budget, geography, or relationship.

  6. VI.

    Annual transparency report. Every March the studio publishes renewal rates, average project length, subcontractor hours (target: zero), and the previous year’s charter exceptions, if any.

  7. VII.

    Sub-mid-market clientele. The studio declines engagements with Fortune 500 procurement. We work with brands whose teams can pick up the phone to a creative director without twelve layers of agency.

— Signed, Margaret Y. Cho & Devon Park, Co-founders. 14 March 2021. Reaffirmed 14 March 2022, 2023, 2024.

Read the full signed PDF, including the 2024 reaffirmation, on request — [email protected].

Issue 03 — The Honor Roll

Quietly, on the wall.

Recognition is not the work. It is, however, what a procurement-minded buyer reads before booking a discovery call.

  • 2022 ADC Gold Cube Margaret Y. Cho — “Bento Loops,” HelloFresh
  • 2023 D&AD Wood Pencil Animation Design Craft — “Field Notes,” Headspace
  • 2023 Webby Honoree (×2) Best Visual Design — Function & Best Motion Graphics
  • 2021 – 2023 AIGA “Motion 100” Three consecutive years — the only mid-tier NYC studio so listed
  • 2023 Fast Company — Most Innovative Studios Featured for the Human-Only Animation Charter
  • Press It’s Nice That · Motionographer · Eye on Design Studio features and project write-ups, 2019–2024
  • Clutch 4.92 / 5.00 Across 211 verified reviews — top decile of motion studios (Clutch, 2024)
  • Renewal 92% Client renewal rate across the last 24 months — annual transparency report
Issue 04 — The Room

4,200 sq ft on North 8th.

The studio is a converted ribbon factory with sixteen Cintiq stations, a dedicated in-house lightbox suite, and a foley closet that smells faintly of cedar. Photographs by Ines Otero, 2024.

Wide view of the Humanflipbook studio floor with sixteen Cintiq stations.
Frame 006 / 60 — The bench, mid-morning, before the second coffee.
The in-house lightbox suite at the Humanflipbook studio.
Frame 007 / 60 — Lightbox suite, North 8th Street.
Close-up of a hand drawing keyframes for an animation.
Frame 008 / 60 — Keyframe pass, “Bento Loops” rework.
The studio's cel pegboard with pinned keyframes.
Frame 009 / 60 — The cel wall, end-of-week review.
Issue 05 — The Conversation

A 30-minute working session, not a pitch deck.

Bring a brief. We’ll bring a senior creative lead, a producer, and a rough plan. No SDR script, no slide countdown, no “just following up.” If we’re not the right studio for the work, we’ll say so and recommend two others.

  • You’ll talk to a senior creative lead — not an account manager.
  • We’ll sketch a first sequence live, on the call, on a Cintiq.
  • You’ll leave with a one-page scope and a real number from our public rate card.

Or call the studio directly, weekdays 10 a m – 6 p m Eastern: +1 (347) 555-0188