Art Direction, Children Books Canum Entertainment, Solana Beach, CA 2004-2006 Having started in 2004, the Children's Book department at Canum Entertainment quickly evolved into a complicated structure, with 26 books in various stages of development on any given day. The Challenge: keeping everything going; The Solution: separating and scheduling the workflow channels, organized by stage of completion; outsourcing part of the [initial-stage] illustrating projects; selecting, contacting and collaborating with individual artists for "mature" projects; evaluating, developing and often translating book content; working closely with the writer and the creative team. The Result: 12 fully illustrated books were finalized and submitted to the Canum Marketing and Publishing department, 8 new books entered the workflow, creative department developed strong connections with freelance artists, several books were re-developed in order to target adolescents rather than children, etc. Nick and Jack A charming story about Nick and Jack, referring to the sides in the recently ended cold war. A smart book, excellent illustrations and absolutely beautiful watercolors. Illustrations for "Nick and Jack" - Canum Ent. Roscoe A story that deals with adolescence: growing up spiritually and physically. As for me, I found it fascinating learn that Plasticine could be so pliable. It was never like that when I was a kid. Illustrations for "Roscoe" - Canum Ent. Art Direction, Musical Development Canum Entertainment, Solana Beach, CA 2004-2006 "The Thief" is in the process of evolving from Russian movie "Vor" into a musical: the entrepreneurial talent of John Moores Jr. is bringing together story by Pavel Chucray and music by a Russian composer Vladimir Shainsky. The Challenge: taking the immense amount of material The Thief had collected in the two years of its "preparation and gathering" stage and making it workable. The Solution: creating the database of acquired music, renditions, and notations. implementing, designing and developing the Intranet production site and PowerPoint presentations that ensured availability of the latest materials and updates; creating a coherent song-story musical structure ( based on original script and developed music); closely collaborating with San Diego and New York creative teams; providing support for the Russian part of the research The Result: By September 2006, The Thief had evolved into a legitimate musical production; the comprehensive musical structure ensured continuation of the story, the Intranet site provided the NY and SD creative teams with an effective communication/update tool, research allowed the creatives to efficiently borrow from Russian culture and history. During that time, The Thief was joined by amalgamation of US talent : orchestrations by Joe Church, consults from Alan Menken, etc, etc, etc.