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Andrew Gordon    

Former Pixar Animator, Producer, Director & Storyteller

Master storyteller, former Pixar animator and recent winner of the Brand Personality Award in Animation from The Asia Pacific Brands Foundation, Andrew Gordon teaches business audiences how to awaken their storytelling superpowers and use them to unleash larger-than-life innovation.

For more than 20 years, Gordon led Pixar’s animation team to create wildly imaginative films, including “A Bug’s Life,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles” and many more family favorites. Through the lens of Pixar’s filmmaking process, Gordon demonstrates how emotional and potent storytelling isn’t just good for movies; it’s great for business too. In his talks and highly interactive workshops, he provides practical, yet fun, tools and processes that build storytelling skills, encourage feedback and collaboration, and teach the value of learning from failure.

Gordon, who is currently co-directing a film for Illumination Entertainment, the creators of such hits as “Despicable Me,” “Sing,” “The Secret life of Pets” and “Minions”, has been teaching others the art of creativity for decades. He has worked internationally with companies like Salesforce, Cisco, Pinterest, Deloitte and IDEO to help leaders implement new processes and approaches that disrupt the norm and cultivate creative, innovative cultures. He also helps organizations tell their unique stories in new and more compelling ways, helping them more effectively reach, engage and motivate their audiences toward action.

From 2004-2017, Gordon worked as Pixar’s animating director and director of promotions. In addition to his animation work, he is passionate about educating the next generation of animators. Gordon has taught animation and storytelling classes since 2000, and has helped lead the Pixar Animation Internship program four times. He also co-founded The Animation Collaborative and the animation programs at California College of the Arts and The One Academy of Communication Design.

Gordon began tinkering with animation in his teens. He studied at art schools in Vancouver, New York, California and New Jersey. Prior to joining Pixar, he was an animator in the Looney Tunes division of Warner Bros. and lectured on art at a variety of schools. The Visual Effects Society presented Gordon the Outstanding Character Animation in an Animated Motion Picture award for his work on “Finding Nemo.” In 2017, he received the Brand Personality Award in Animation from The Asia Pacific Brands Foundation for his contributions to the world of animation.

Speech Topics


Creating a culture of Creativity

This talk is about the 20 years spent at Pixar, and all the lessons I learned about why this company rose to the top and how the culture played such a large influence on the products.

Story and Why it Matters

Story no Glory was the saying and this talk speaks to all the ingredients of what makes a great story and how to get that into your work. We look at story structures as well as business stories and break down the why of each.

Feedback, Failure and Fun

The secret sauce of great movies is sometime how the feedback is given and received. This talk looks at how the brain trust worked during my time at Pixar and how other companies do similar work. We look at how to understand what good feedback is and also how rapid iteration is key in making great work.

Hero's in Film and Business

Many people believe the customer should be the hero in the business story. In this talk we discuss what makes a great hero in a film and how businesses can also utilize this information when marketing.

The Meta-verse. All you need to know

Having worked for a startup in the Web 3.0 space, this talk looks at all the innovations in Avatars, NFT's and how they will play a larger role in the years to come as we develop our digital identity.

News


Fantasy Animated Drama 'Hawkmaster' In The Works At Fox From ...
Oct 4, 2021 ... EXCLUSIVE: Brave director Mark Andrews and his former Pixar colleague Andrew Gordon have teamed up with Israeli producer Oded Turgeman to develop an ...

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