Ryan Dunn has mixed feelings about the downtown Chicago digs that Vitamin has moved into in. The old building had once been home to a coffin manufacturer, and therefore had a hip and, um, underground feel to it. But the new space has its own special place in history; it was once Playboy magazine’s Chicago headquarters. Since taking over the third floor of this storied Brownstone, he’s had at least one bus load of Bunnies bounce by to pay homage to Hef’s hallowed halls.

There’s a story behind everything, and that’s how Dunn, Vitamin’s creative director, likes it.

What’s their Gig?

Vitamin is a “hybrid of a collective of creative story-tellers and a traditional production company,” says Dunn. “Our style can seamlessly shift from project to project.” Although Dunn’s background is in design, most projects are conceived in paragraph form on a note pad, Dunn explains, adding, “We’re more narrative than other studios.”

Vitamin’s tight-knit creative staff includes a small roster of in-house directors, an art director and a visual effects artist. While the majority of Vitamin’s work comes from the agency world, where they earn their jobs in the traditional pitch-to-win situation, they always try to have a personal project in the studio to keep them fresh. Big company clients include Budweiser, Cheerios and McDonald’s, but they’ve recently stepped outside of the commercial realm to complete the title sequence for the film Nothing Like the Holidays.

The Cool Factor

One recent project that Dunn feels closely expresses the ethos of the company is a commercial that the facility made to, quite simply, promote the concept of peace. Dunn came up with a visual lexicon of peace symbols, which were then integrated into environments that the team created and shot. Painted white peace symbols encircle a man on the beach as he scratches his own peace signs in the sand on the wet shore. White birds are freed from their optical illusionary cages and fly up into the sky. Dunn calls it a “montage of peace.”

The spot is viewable on Vitamin’s Web site, and while you’re there check out the blog, an eccentric mix of found video clips, photographs and other random bits of interest, chosen with a discerning eye.

The Geek Factor

Vitamin’s most recent personal project is a series of short animated films starring (what else?) anthropomorphic pills. The first is a riff on a gangster flick, as two thugs quite literally “bump off” a poor hapless capsule. “We’re working on one now that’s like a vaudeville stage play,” adds Dunn. “Two pills, one stage. Wackiness ensues.” Dunn sees these films as a brand extension for the company as well as a way to be creative and not be bound by client restrictions.

And while the core of its creative team is small, that doesn’t mean its output is. That same building that used to house the Bunnies is now home to four of Vitamin’s sister companies: Film Works, a post facility; Astro Film Labs, which processes dailies for films and commercials; Lift, a motion graphics company and CRC, Chicago Recording Company. The close proximity and fact that these shops are all owned by the same parent company gives Vitamin an edge – it can turn over projects in record time.

So, you could say that it’s able to (re)produce as fast as bunnies. But you probably shouldn’t.