Pixels. Big chunky blocks. Put ’em together and what do you have? Nostalgia. I’ve done a lot of pixel design and animation over the years starting with the Bell Mobility advertising campaign. For several years Bell Canada absolutely owned the pixel look in advertising across the country.

Much of the material on the reel above was created at Global Mechanic while I was a director there, with a lot of the design done by Toke Nygaard of Cuban Council. I learned a lot from Toke.

I personally directed over 30 commercials for the Bell campaign and created pixel art for a bazillion magazine, web, newspaper and billboard print ads.  Since then I’ve had my hand occasionally in the pixel design realm and it’s always nice to do. It’s like drawing with colored blocks, and who doesn’t like colored blocks?

My personal favourite spots from this campaign (in no particular order) are:

• Testimonials
• TV @ Work
• Greek Olympics
• HD People
• Cheetah vs. Hare

A huge thanks to all the talented writers, designers and animators that brought this campaign to life.

Viva la pixels!

-Nathaniel Akin

Here’s a bunch more, click on any thumbnail to view the spot: