Today we’d like to introduce you to Limbert Fabian.
Hi Limbert, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Limbert Fabian, I am a multidisciplinary creative artist and designer. As a child growing up in New York City I was always attracted to drawing and making things with my hands in a city offering all kinds of stimuli. I was fortunate enough to hone in my interests and find like minded individuals at Fiorello Laguardia High School of Music and Art located near Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Surrounded by adults and artists of all types I was encouraged. I furthered my education at Ringling College of Art and Design, where I was sure I was destined to be an animator. Art school had other plans for me. I focused on Illustration as a major, seeing how it could offer me the most flexibility and freedom to explore the things that I found interesting at the time, most of which were music videos, album covers and movies. I briefly considered going to film school but upon graduation freelancing as an illustrator and a short stint as frontman of a punk band, I found that I could potentially find my own way. Film finally did come knocking when I moved to Dallas TX to help establish an animation studio at the request of someone who I would form a decades long creative relationship with – Brandon Oldenburg and I met in art school and quickly became friends around the same interests; Art, design, animation, music and Star Wars. He was from Fort Worth, and when he graduated he headed back home and stepped into what would become Reel FX. He invited me on the promise of helping build the art department for 6 months, 25 years later we are still making art together.
The studio became our film school – A visual effects and post production studio nested in the middle of the country, was a perfect place to learn how it all worked and how the Art department was central to shaping the look and feel of television commercials and eventually special effects shots in feature films. The studio grew to a fully fledged animation studio with over 300 employees, developing the animated film known as Rise of The Guardians and later animating everything from Bugs Bunny to Scooby Doo. Brandon would eventually leave and start a smaller studio in North Louisiana where I followed after a short time spent in the west coast as lead designer and creative director of Reel FX Los Angeles’ offices. We both were seeking opportunities to tell our own stories and continue to experiment with animation techniques. Moonbot Studios proved to be all of that and more. After winning an Oscar for best animated short film in 2012, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mister Morris Lessmore, we quickly became the first call for a lot agency’s looking for new ideas in telling stories. An 8 year run creating a variety of short films, branded content and digital experiences and winning numerous awards for branded films like The Scarecrow for Chipotle, Taking Flight for Radio Flyer, Silent for Dolby and many more. The variety in story and style was just the tip of the iceburg. We also had an interest and success in app development and games. Moonbot was the perfect breeding grounds for art and ideas. Ultimately we were able to sell an original idea to Netlix (Lost Ollie) before having to shudder the studio doors. The tax incentives in Louisiana that helped us start had dried up and it was hard to sustain the studio. With half our engineers and designers leaving to pursue their own paths, Brandon and I found stability in returning to Texas with the other half. Reel FX had at the time had a small burgeoning interactive devision in need of creative leadership. We decided to join with the hopes to continue our interests in gaming and interactive story telling. We named the studio Flight School based on the idea we dared to soar into new frontiers. We quickly started developing several virtual reality experiences, a space we had not yet explored. and developed two indie games, Creature In The Well and Stonefly. The studio was more of a creative lab, creating experiences for brand activations and telling stories with new media, and after 4 years of creating immersive pop ups for American Express at the US Open or VR stories for Google and helping develop engagement with AR. We set our sights on establishing a permanent brick and mortar location. A place we can wrap story around all of the interactive ideas we were creating for other clients… a location based immersive experience house. This around the time that places like Meow Wolf had begun to take traction. We had ambitions to mix animation, theater and gaming into one cohesive experience. We finally birthed The Department of Wonder in Houston, leaving Flight school to focus on the digital needs, Brandon and I joined three other creative partners as the Experience Trust to focus on crafting the experience, which opened with the support of a real estate developer investment. The Dept. of Wonder was a wonderful mix of all the experiences I have had a creative director and artist. At times it felt like a living illustration at others it was like directing a theater show and at the same time, balancing a virtual reality game. We closed our doors in late 2023 due to unseen economical pressures. The Experience Trust, spun out and has been focused on creating world class and award winning installations and have our sights on a new concept set in the land of Oz!
Brandon and I have formed a director duo partnership managed by Anonymous Content called InBetween. Where we get to do all of the things we find interesting without the constraints or pressures of running a studio. With several original ideas in development we hope to keep surprising audiences in a variety of mediums for years to come.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been an interesting road, bumping at times. Trying to create things that don’t exist is hard. Sometimes you develop ideas that the market is not ready for. Opening and closing the Department of Wonder was the hardest thing I have had to do in my career. The pressure to sustain a studio, much less a venue, means always selling and business development which means less time to create. With the department of wonder we had to sell an original story to the world and explain how it works all at the same time. It was not like you can go see a movie and form your own opinions. We had to tell the audience they are part of the story , one they were told very little about so that we could preserve some surprise.
Balancing art and commerce is tricky, but we have found joy and opportunity to experiment where we can. The creative landscape is changing at a really fast pace. AI obviously is creating waves in all creative endeavors but I am encouraged at all of the potential new spaces and ideas that can be explored where are artist are the helm of those tools.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an Illustrator, Film maker and Designer… It seems like a lot of hats to wear, but all of it, to me at least, is about creative problem solving.
Finding ways to communicate an idea and connect emotionally with an audience is a lot fun, I love conceptual images that stick with you a little longer, making you think about their deeper meaning.
Craft is important, I think artist should get good at their tools so they can then understand how to break the rules of said tools.
As an illustrator I love texture and symbolic marks. Figurative work is appealing to me. Line control is essential and color is emotional.
As a animator and film director. I love the camera, and the invitation to the audience’s point of view. Why and where the camera lives is everything. After that its just building a frame, much like an illustration. Balance and notes of the story you are trying to tell.
As a designer, I love simplicity and surprising use of color. It is an opportunity to connect with a piece of information and point you to whats next.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
Drawing under the kitchen table while my mom cooks.
Playing with my brother in our hallway with all our action figures, we would get lost in worlds we were creating right there.
I love music, My parents always had music playing in the house, so I guess I always have a soundtrack playing in the background of my life. I love the mood it sets for any occasion, that’s engrained from early childhood memories.
I’m Dominican, born in New York with a big family that always got together on weekends. Our home was the center of connecting with others and the city was such a magical and electric backdrop. It seemed like there was music in every corner.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Weareinbetween.com
- Instagram: @limbertdraws
- Facebook: Limbert
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/limbertfabian/
- Twitter: @limbert
- Other: https://www.LimbertFabian.com
