I first came across Christian Simmons work when I was checking out some of the competition for the Doritos Superbowl contest. There were over 1,700 entries submitted and believe it or not, me and my creative partner saw nearly every single one.
Most of them were flat-out horrible (just trust me on this) but out of the 30 or so that were contenders, there was one commercial that really stood out to me: Christian Simmons’ “Birds of a Feather”
Birds of a Feather, just don’t call him boring.
The rest of the competition seemed like stereotypical, in-your-face Superbowl fare. But “Birds of a Feather” felt different, it had a strange style to it that seemed slightly “off”…in a good way.
My friend did some googling and found the rest of his work online, and I was surprised to find that “Birds of a Feather” was actually Christian at his tamest! His other work can be found at his production company, Dandy Dwarves, or on his own personal site.
Christian’s commercials are fun and very well done, but what really blew me away were his shorts. When not restricted to 30 second clips, his twisted and surreal visions fully come to life and I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like them before.
Pencil Face, will be shown in the upcoming Sundance Film Festival in January.
With a dark, atmospheric style, Christian is more of an experimental artist than your traditional “Spielberg-aspiring” storyteller. His work is strongly visual, usually involving seamless special effects and spot on audio work that bring these unreal worlds to life.
Sunshine Bob, he can’t take control of his life.
The end result are films that tiptoe the beautiful/grotesque and leave you with a slight chill down your spine. Some of those images will stay with you long after they end (don’t make the mistake I did and watch this stuff before bed!) Everytime I watch one of his pieces, I never know what they’ll stir in me, but they always take me to another place and leave a heavy feeling in my gut.
Plasticville, now this is how you open up a fashion show.
I think Christian himself summed up his work best on his site’s bio:
I find myself being constantly propelled in my work by the notion of ‘The Beautiful Monster’, a concept embodying
ideas of the interconnectivity between beauty and ugliness. Just beneath the surface of something we’ve long held as beautiful, or even repulsive, may lie just the opposite.
Check out his other work, it’s all amazing. From experimental shorts to sharp commercials to well-done documentary pieces. I’m wishing him the best of luck with his Doritos commercials, but honestly, I don’t think he even needs it. This guy’s gonna be huge and I have no doubt you’ll be seeing a lot more of his work in the future.
