NEW YORK CITY – Creative agencies Leroy & Clarkson (www.leroyandclarkson.com) and Anatomy have joined forces. The move is designed to offer clients a deeper palette of creative services encompassing creative strategy, production, 2D/3D animation, visual effects and design for all visual mediums.
Photo: Kate Hillis and Mark Valentine
As a result of the merger, Anatomy founder and network branding creative Mark Valentine joins Leroy & Clarkson as chief creative officer. He will work alongside Kate Hillis, owner/chief executive officer, who has led the creative studio since 2014.
Valentine began his career in the early 1990s at CNBC, where he established the network’s on-air promo department before joining the entertainment branding agency Lee Hunt Associates as creative director. In 2000, he founded Anatomy, where he oversaw show launches, large scale upfront presentations and global television campaigns for a diverse range of clients.
Leroy & Clarkson was launched in 2001 and quickly found success with projects for USA Network, SyFy, Cooking Channel, Fuse, History, Lifetime A&E and others. Hillis joined the company in 2010 as managing director/CFO, and acquired the company in 2014 making it one of the few woman-owned creative studios in New York City. Prior to Leroy & Clarkson, Hillis produced documentaries, including the highly acclaimed Hometown Baghdad, which depicts the rarely seen lives of young Iraqi men trying to lead normal lives within a city at war.
“This is great news for all of our clients,” Valentine says. “I’m thrilled to be working with Leroy & Clarkson, our collective resources offer our clients more depth and bandwidth to accommodate larger scale projects with access to some of the best creative talent in the industry.”
The combined capabilities of the new venture include 360 advertising campaigns, brand identity and design systems, brand strategy and positioning, motion graphics, creative editorial, live-action production, branded content, key art, writing, live events and experiential design.