Call it a creative alliance. Call it a ‘new business model.’ Call it innovative, value-added marketing if you will. But the best way to describe the new type design services now available through Spin Productions is to call it as new president Connie Dercho sees it: ‘We are bringing to the commercial world that beautiful design you find in print and making it into moving pictures.’

Spin, a high-end special effects and animation house based in Toronto, is now able to offer a range of custom typography and design services through its representation of BarkinHotStudio and Faith, both also Toronto-based print design shops, as well as u.s.-based Arf & Co.’s special effects director Alex Fernbach. Spin will also have access to the talents of Arf’s paws imaging system.

The new consortium, a deal six months in the making, is a model new to Canada which allows all the companies involved to extend their capabilities, offer more services under one roof, and expand their markets.

‘It is a responsive move to what we have been seeing in the marketplace,’ says chairman and ceo Norm Stangl. ‘We have been leaders in the marketplace, it is the natural order for us to do this. We were the first to have Henry and Inferno in Canada, and this new structure is a first new directive in how to approach our business and develop a new client base.’

BarkinHotStudio is a five-year-old Toronto-based design shop specializing in youth culture and entertainment design including font creation, custom typography and print advertising. Some recent work includes movie posters for feature films The Hanging Garden, Hard Core Logo, Last Night and Kitchen Party.

Also out of Toronto, Faith design studio, headed up by Paul Sych, creates design advertising and typographic assignments, with an emphasis on typography, working with such clients as Nike, Swatch, Coke, nba and nhl. Established in 1990, the company’s designs have been published in both books and magazines in Hong Kong, Switzerland, Germany and the u.s.

Says Dercho: ‘We design motion graphics, they design the custom fonts and we are marrying them together for the end commercial.’

Spin will also rep director Alex Fernbach in Canada through u.s.-based commercial production house Arf for visual effects spots combining live action with type design. As well, Spin represents paws, a motion-control and imaging technique (under the Arf umbrella) new to the north.

‘We have chosen companies that are going to be delivering something new to agencies and that are doing something different and exciting,’ says Hesty Leibtag, vp of sales. ‘Working with these people is going to give us a leg up, it’s a new wave of world-class talent that we can take into a new marketplace internationally and in the u.s.’

While the main sales effort will focus on Toronto, the plan is to move into u.s. cities including Detroit, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago, New York and Ohio for starters.

In anticipation of work resulting from the new venture, Spin will beef up its After Effects department, liquidating the Henry and acquiring a Flame system, which, according to Stangl, better suits the company’s production process.

Editor Craig Small, formerly of The Daily Post, will be at the controls on the Flame while Spin’s Steve Lewis will run the Inferno. In addition to these appointments, former producer Lisa Batke has been named executive producer and Leibtag will be looking for someone to help her on the sales front.