We are a Mexican publishing house and creative studio founded in 1994 by Will Eisner Award winner, Oscar Gonzalez Loyo, along with his wife, Susana Romero, and his father, Oscar Gonzalez Guerrero. We're specialized in family and children-oriented comic books, contents, publicity mascots, storyboards, motion comics, graphic design, animation, scripts and edutainment products for both digital and printed platforms.

Our career includes collaborations and titles with companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Bongo Comics-The Simpsons, Televisa-Sesame Street, Warner Bros-Looney Tunes, Blue Demon Jr., Right Stuff Inc.-Astroboy, Bubble Gummers, Coqueta & Audaz, Disney Mexico, among many others.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

COCA-COLA HAPPINES FACTORY OFFICIAL COMIC BOOK


We have an interesting story about a project we made not so long ago...

In December 2007 we received a call from Z Publicidad, the Mexican Advertisement Agency for Coca-Cola. Z Publicidad, along with Z Graphics were involved in re-designing Coke's image and were, as we understand, the first Advertisement Agency in history to develop a global campaign for the brand outside of the USA which was: The Coke side of life.

We met Pablo Rovalo, Director of Z Graphics a couple of years ago (though Oscar met him when they were kids), he and his team of designers and creative people developed the Coke bottle silhouette that has traveled the world... it's amazing, just a couple of days ago I saw some photos from Tokyo with the images and campaign that was created in Mexico, and it's great to know that a campaign like this, so fresh and with such a heart-felt message about life had come from people I have worked with.


Z Publicidad was founded in the 1980's by then-DJ's Alejandro González-Iñárritu and his best college friend, Martín Hernández. And today they are established as a major player in advertisement, design and sound (which they design for movies through Z Tracks).

After that phone call, we had a meeting at Z and also found out that Pablo had left the company in the beginning of the Fall and now lives in Barcelona; so we met another part of the staff. This time they had a special project that required extra-speed: an 8 page comic book that had to be ready to print in 2 weeks, revisions and approval would come from Z, and Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta.

This would be an adaptation of an animation short developed earlier in 2007 called "The Happines Factory"... there had already been a previous short that portrayed the same universe and characters. This one looked even better.


After the briefing, we all looked at each other in that moment and knew that we were in the nick of time. This would be a project that would have to take full-time 3-4 artists for the next days. And so, came on board Susy Romero (adaptation & lettering) Mariana Moreno (pencils), Alex Palomares (inks) and Tonatiuh Rocha (color) .

We agreed to develop the project.

The next weeks were a big effort for everyone at the Studio. Perhaps the greatest challenge for us, graphically, was to achieve the likeness of the Coca-Cola bottle that the people from Atlanta were looking for, established in style guides. But it paid of.

When I delivered the finished files to Z, I was greeted by hugs and congratulations from the whole staff, thanking us for the support, the speed, and the quality of the work. "No way! Did you made this?!"... Some people at Z couldn't believe that this was Mexican-made.




... Perhaps just as some people around the globe are surely amazed by the origin and results of the 'Coke side of life campaign'.

Needless to say, Coca-Cola was also really happy with the results.

And after 2 weeks of seeing the beverage on the computer screens, artwork and e-mails... well, we HAD to toast with Coke on the success of the project that now gives us the nickname of "Advertisement's Graphic SWAT Team" (no kidding).

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