CHRLX (formerly known as Charlex until 2014) is an American animation studio based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

that produces

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

primarily for

commercials A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

History

Charlie Levi and

Alex Weil Alex Weil (July 31, 1951 – April 17, 2019) was the founder and executive creative director of the New York City based digital design and production studio Charlex (now CHRLX), which he founded alongside Charlie Levi (the company's name is a portm ...

founded Charlex (with the name being a portmentau 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

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, and in 1984, they created

The Cars The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek ( rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (lead guitar), Greg Hawkes (keyboards), ...

' " 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 The 1984 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 14, 1984. The inaugural ceremony honored the best music videos released between May 2, 1983 and May 2, 1984, and was hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler at the Radio City Music Hall in New ...

. 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 SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...

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

– "You Might Think" (1984) *

– "Heartbreak City" (transitional links; 1984) *

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * YES (Your Extraordinary Saturday), a learning program from the Minnesota Institute for Talente ...

– '' 9012Live'' (1985)

Television/film

*''

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'' (opening titles; 1984) *''

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'' (opening titles; 1985) *'' National Geographic Explorer'' (opening titles; 1990) *'' The Howard Stern Show'' (show opening; 1990) *''

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Anniversary Special'' (video restoration; 1990) *''Real Mature'' (opening sequence; 1991) *'' TNT 100% Weird'' (opening sequence; 1992) *''

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Home Video'' (opening titles; 1993) *'' David Blaine: Magic Man'' (opening graphics; 1998) *''

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'' (credit sequence design; 1999) *'' David Blaine: Frozen in Time'' (opening graphics; 2000) *'' Capturing the Friedmans'' (visual effects; 2003) *''

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'' ("Windmills" animation; 2018)

Commercials

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* Bass Weejuns * Bausch & Lomb *

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Butter Blend *

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* Bubble Yum * Budweiser *

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* Charles Schwab Corporation * Cinemax * Cingular * Clairol *

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Crest Crest or CREST may refer to: Buildings *The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York *"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York *Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...

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* Diet Pepsi *

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* Dole Food Company * Dr. Scholl's *

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* E-Trade *

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* Georgia Lottery *

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* HA! TV Comedy Network *

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* Hasbrohref="http://totallyjem.jemmagic.com/jemhasbrolicensing.html" TotallyJem! * HealthCare.gov *

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* Holiday Inn * Honeycomb * HTC * IBM *

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* JEM *

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* Kohl's *

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* Krylon *

Lifetime Lifetime may refer to: * Life expectancy, the length of time a person is expected to remain alive Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Lifetime (band), a rock band from New Jersey * ''Life Time'' (Rollins Band album), by Rollins Band * ...

* Lucent * M&M's *

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* The Movie Channel *

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Video Network *

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* Nickelodeon Studios * Nike, Inc. *North Texas Municipal Water District * Ocean Spray *

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* Ralph Lauren Corporation * Revlon *

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* Rite Aid *

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*Seagram's Escapes *

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REGZA * True Value * Valvoline *

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* Visa Inc. * White Mountain Cooler *

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* Ziploc

External links

References

American animation studios Mass media companies established in 1979 Privately held companies based in New York City 1979 establishments in New York City {{animation-studio-stub