Histeria!

Summary

• Fundation: 2013
• Founders: Jannerson Xavier e Daniel Kano
• Histeria! it’s a motion graphics studio that provides services in animation and illustration
• The agency has more than 10 employees in an office located at São Paulo, Brazil
• Main clients: PespiCo, Nextel, Ambev, Google, Vodafone, McKinsey & Company, Lenovo, C&A, Azul, Havaianas, Globo, Itaú, UOL, Sunset, Memac Ogilvy, DM9DDB, Y&R, JWT, Artplan, Talent Marcel, and Almapbbdo

Histeria!

Histeria! is an animation and motion graphics studio based in São Paulo that works on advertising for both TV and Digital, social media content and videos for institutional and internal use.

We are a little store of stories.

A craftsmen workshop that transforms every story worth telling is a story worth listening to.

In the remote year of 2013, two guys from São Paulo - Brazil dreamed about a small studio that could combine a lean workflow with good prices and, of course, amazing storytelling. Oh, we are those guys, by the way! So make yourself home and we hope we can work together soon.

The name of the company is a combination of a prefix and a suffix: “hist” is the prefix of Historía, a Greek expression that means inquisitive knowledge and “eria” is a Portuguese suffix that indicates a little artisanal production. The agency considers itself as a “store of stories”, that has as their main purpose transform a client’s story that must be told in a story that is worth listening to, that people are interested and want to know more.

In 2013, Jannerson and Daniel were roommates and decided to start a motion business. Without many resources, they stayed at the apartment and did everything on their computers. At the time they both did freelance jobs in design presentations, via PowerPoint or Keynote, Daniel as a full-time job and Jannerson at night, after his other job as an editor at a social media agency. The plan was to pay the bills with the money they got by doing presentations and, in the meanwhile, evolved their abilities in motion design. Jannerson believes that they had the courage to open Histeria!, as well as a facility to learn how to do it, because of their small age, 24 and 25 years.

They decided to open an animation studio, so they can have more freedom in the creation of projects, more flexible hours, quality of life, and, of course, make some money. Along the way, they did a lot of work in many areas and discovered that some of their beginning goals were not actually suitable. One of the main discovers was that is not all about the quality of life, creative freedom, and money:

Having a company takes a lot of effort and time, mostly if you're doing it without many resources. In the creative world, production is not the only area, there’s also attendance, pricing, sizing off staff and resources, financial and sales. Besides that, the manager has to deal with all aspects of routine and contingencies. Jannerson affirms that it is very hard not to let the company take place in all aspects of life, including mental health, and it is a challenge that he faces off constantly.

Creative control is not always in the hands of the company. In the huge majority of projects the agency has to respond to a client and do exactly what he wants. The whole creative process must follow the main demand, focus, and requests of the client.

Being the owner includes control of finance and defining your own paycheck. Rising your salary also means taking more money out of the company’s budget, which can be crucial in a moment of crisis or low market. Because of that, Histeria!’s bosses often earn less than some of their freelancers but prioritize a more comfortable and secure situation for the firm.

After 7 years working as owners in a motion agency, Jannerson and Daniel have a new concept of what success is and why it’s gratifying having this business: it’s all about the people. With more than 10 fixed employees, and others working on special projects, the owners now recognize the importance of collaboration and all the possibilities that only having a company can offer. Each professional has a lot to learn and teach and carries baggage that complements the services in different and special ways. Histeria!’s team counts with people that haven’t even completed 18 years old and others with more than 40. It’s an inspiring and diverse environment.

Services

The agency prepares content in two main categories:

1. Animation
2. Illustration

The animations are made in a digital 2D format or a mix of techniques, that can include cutout, tracking, cel, stop motion, and others. This service counts with a script, storyboard, concepts, illustration, motion design, voice-over, soundtrack and sound design for advertising, digital content, institutional videos, or video case.

For illustration, the company also prepares 2D contents or even handmade, which can be digital, with watercoloring, crayon, nankin, and other techniques. This service is provided, for example, to graphic novels.

The agency acts between big-time studios and freelancing, being ideal for projects that don’t have a very large budget but are too complex to be handled by a freelancer. It’s a studio that offers a very good cost-benefit, by attaching reasonable prices with high quality.

Some of the projects.

Khan Academy App

When the app was launched in Brazil, Histeria! was asked to do a promotional video and some illustrations based on Khan’s strict visual guidelines, but that also added personality into the campaign. The studio considers that the little video was a fun way to support and promote a serious huge cause.

Google SVA

SVA is a complex series of services to Google’s strategic partners. The goal that was delivered to Histeria! was to create a quick small video that could sum up its means. To give Google's personality into it the studio used the colors and symbols of the company and created a little story: the main character was “Strategy”, a diamond that gets lost in the middle of digital’s wilderness and then gets help from Google Strategic Services. It’s a more humanized way to treat business and digital information.

Google Music

Histeria! developed a series of images and videos and GIFs to illustrate the power of music and its influence in human history and life. The motion graphic was used to represent the fact that we’re all instrumental, as one of the campaign's sayings was “music precedes us and will outlive us” - we can’t live without it.

Donate a Selfie

Histeria! was invited by the PACIFIC agency to create illustrations for a blood donation campaign for San Diego’s hospitals. The main goal of the action was to reach the millennial public and engage them to extend their arms for something else than taking a selfie. The blood donors between the ages of 21 and 35 represent only 22% and with that project focused on social media, the hopes are that this number increases and helps people in need.  To create both images and videos the company used techniques like cut out and cel animation.

TEDxUSP 2017 Interactions

The agency was responsible for creating a promotional video that spread information about the fourth edition of this event and received authorization to do it in their own way, with total creative freedom. Scientific divulgation is still an issue in Brazil, with the major part of theories and discoveries staying only in academic centers, without a proper disclosure for the general population. What São Paulo University searches to do with this event with TED conferences is to change this scenario a little bit. Because of that, the video was centered on the theme “Interactions”, where the academy and society dialogue.

Cartoon Network Highlights

Cartoon Network hired the studio to create monthly highlights video, that counted with a simple storyline of all the channel’s characters interacting in a messenger group. The studio also made many personalized GIFs for all of them. All drawings were inspired by the channel’s classic visual identity, in colors and expressions. It was a great opportunity for Histeria!, that could connect with their childhood memories and be part of such an iconic television channel.

How Bad Do You Want, Far From Alaska’s video clip

The Brazilian League of Legends Championship (CBLOL) is known for having iconic openings final’s shows and Histeria! has been part of that story for over 2 years in a row. The video exhibit at Act 2 of the event tells the journey of an LoL player, since the very beginning and shows all the dedication and resilience that are necessary in order to become an esports athlete. The soundtrack was composed and featured by Far From Alaska and turned into the song’s video clip.

“Mundo Mistério”, a Netflix series

Histeria! was one of the studios responsible for creating animations and illustrations for all episodes of the Brazilian documentary series, hosted by the YouTuber Felipe Castanhari, that explores the most intriguing wonders and mysteries of science and history. The themes of the first season, launched in 2020, are Bermuda’s Triangle, Black Death, Time Travel, From Wolves to Dogs, Zombie Apocalypse, The Big Extinction of Dinosaurs, Artificial Superintelligence, and Global Warming.

At the end of 2019, the company made a retrospective video that combined all of their main works of this year.