Former Chicago editor Dustin Foster and his partner, motion designer and animator Dan Wiltshire, of Chop and Hue of Grand Rapids, struck an abundance of Gold — and Silver — at last week’s West Michigan AAF Addy Awards.
More than 300 members of the ad industry and their clients attending the event at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in downtown Grand Rapids.
The partners’ Grand Rapids post house and creative collective took home 11 Addys — of which two top prizes were for their work for Chicago client Onion Labs.
The company won Best of Show for film/video/sound on Onion Labs’ 60-second online commercial, “Career Day,” for Firehouse Subs, a national fast food chain, and a Gold for category Internet Commercial Campaign for Onion Labs’ 60-second webisode from the “Dr. Jim Show” series for sponsor Intel.
The other nine Addys rewarded Chop and Hue’s work for local Michigan clients. Including a Silver for their Branded Content piece for Long Road Distillers, a Grand Rapids bar and restaurant that has an onsite vodka and gin distillery.
Chop and Hue also provided the 2-minute sponsor’s reel that opened the awards ceremony.
Business has been so good that the company will be moving in a few of weeks to an expanded 1,900-sq. ft. office in the same downtown building where they started their company in spring of 2014.Michigan native Foster had lived in Chicago for a decade, editing for Resolution Production Group and Post Effects, among other companies, before returning to Grand Rapids in 2012. He and Wiltshire started Chop and Hue a year ago in a downtown office building.
While their core business is full-service post, the partners also head a creative collective for production and post.
The collective is composed of eight specialists, including DP Joe Czerw, who was DP on the Firehouse Subs spot, motion design Justin Zion and sound designer Steve Maslan. The others are based in London, Baltimore and Detroit.
Foster and Wiltshire are joined in their Grand Rapids company by Michael Brown, production coordinator.
