CHRLX (formerly known as Charlex until 2014) is an American animation studio based in New York City that produces animation primarily for commercials.
History Charlie Levi and Alex Weil founded Charlex (with the name being a portmanteau of their first names) in 1979 "with $1,600 and a phone" to support their rock band and to work on commercials. When the band folded, Levi and Weil began working at Charlex full-time. In 1981, Charlex began producing an innovative weekly TV-ad campaign for the National Enquirer, and in 1984, they created The Cars' "You Might Think" music video, for which they were awarded the "Video of the Year" –the very first winner– at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards. Both projects helped Charlex get more work throughout the 1980s, including network IDs for the Fred/Alan agency, commercials, and opening titles for various programs. In 1986 Charlex produced the groundbreaking Cherry Coke ad that featured multiple composited layers of digital video which was a technical tour de force at the time.
In 1998, Charlex started using CHRLX as an alternative name for the company (removing the vowels from their name); the Charlex name was slowly phased out until 2014, although it is still CHRLX's legal name. In 2006, Charlex's short film One Rat Short received a Best of Show award at the SIGGRAPH 2006 Computer Animation Festival. CHRLX's co-founder Alex Weil died in 2019, but CHRLX continues to operate under the leadership of Chris Byrnes.
Filmography Short films Inner Tube (backgrounds and electronic effects; 1987) One Rat Short (2006) Amarelinha (associate producer; 2007) ShapeShifter (2010)
Music videos The Cars – "You Might Think" (1984) The Cars – "Heartbreak City" (transitional links; 1984) Yes – 9012Live (1985)
Television/film Saturday Night Live (opening titles; 1984) Mr. Wizard's World (opening titles; 1985) National Geographic Explorer (opening titles; 1990) The Howard Stern Show (show opening; 1990) The Honeymooners Anniversary Special (video restoration; 1990) Real Mature (opening sequence; 1991) TNT 100% Weird (opening sequence; 1992) Nickelodeon Home Video (opening titles; 1993) David Blaine: Magic Man (opening graphics; 1998) On the Run (credit sequence design; 1999) David Blaine: Frozen in Time (opening graphics; 2000) Capturing the Friedmans (visual effects; 2003) Maniac ("Windmills" animation; 2018)
Commercials
American Express American International Group AOL AT&T Avis Bass Weejuns Bausch & Lomb Blue Bonnet Butter Blend British Airways Bubble Yum Budweiser Campbell's Capella University Centrum Charles Schwab Corporation Cinemax Cingular Clairol Coca-Cola Crest Dannon David Yurman Diet Pepsi DirecTV Dodge Dole Food Company Dr. Scholl's Dunkin' Donuts E-Trade Fidelity Investments Fila Ford Motor Company General Electric General Mills Georgia Lottery Gillette Grey Goose HA! TV Comedy Network Häagen-Dazs Hanna-Barbera Hannaford Hasbrohref="http://totallyjem.jemmagic.com/jemhasbrolicensing.html" TotallyJem! HealthCare.gov Healthy Choice The Hershey Company Holiday Inn Honeycomb HTC IBM Jarritos JCPenney Jell-O JEM Ken's Foods Kodak Kohl's Kotex Krylon Lifetime Lucent M&M's Maryland Lottery Maxell Milk-Bone The Movie Channel MSNBC Myers Rum Video Network National Enquirer Nexium Nextel Communications NFL Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite Nickelodeon Studios Nike, Inc. North Texas Municipal Water District Ocean Spray Pizza Hut Polaroid Procter & Gamble Ralph Lauren Corporation Revlon Ribena Rite Aid The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Seagram's Escapes Seton Healthcare Family Sprint Corporation Sony Sour Patch Kids Subway Toshiba REGZA True Value Valvoline Verizon Communications VH1 Visa Inc. White Mountain Cooler WCVB-TV WTTG-TV Zale Corporation Ziploc
Idents Nickelodeon 1984's - 1990's -
External links
References