Ellerey Gave is a family man, in every sense of the word. Capacity started out as a modern mom-and-pop operation. “Jennifer and I started Capacity in July of 2003, the same month we got married,” explains Gave. “While she was busy making wedding plans I was setting up the business. It was a pretty crazy time.”

That personal approach extends to the current incarnation of the company. “We started Capacity with the idea of building a nurturing creative environment where artists could flourish, build friendships, and actually look forward to coming to work every day,” adds Gave. “We really are like a family.”

What’s their Gig?

Capacity’s headquarters is in the arts district of Culver City – an appropriate environment, since he and his wife both have design backgrounds (they met in design school in Detroit). While they’ve done their fair share of commercial work, Capacity’s current specialty is media branding.

Gave and company provided the concept, design, animation and editorial for the show open for CMT’s Top Cowboy on, a show where “branding” has a particularly literal meaning. The company also performed similar duties for the NFL, MTV, VH1, The Cartoon Network and a slew of commercial clients. And anyone who’s recently gone to a movie based on a Marvel Comic has seen Capacity’s contribution to Marvel’s logo: a flip book filled with bold comic graphics that brilliantly morph to animate the Marvel name.

The Cool Factor

The project that gave Capacity its momentum, says its founder, was its 2006 rebrand of NBC. “It really put us on the map, which we’re super thankful for.” In the Gaves’ hands, the bold colors of the NBC peacock’s individual feathers become a point-and-click cursor that drives the viewer’s eyes to a specific point on the screen while pushing NBC’s slate of top programming including Heroes, 30 Rock and The Office. “Branding projects allow our team to develop and evolve a system of ideas that’s meant to become relatively self-sustainable once we turn everything over to the client,” adds Gave. “The projects usually last at least six months and the number of elements we’re creating can be pretty extreme.”

To that point, Capacity just finished a rebrand of Cartoon Network, a project that Gave is especially proud of. “It was an immense undertaking,” he says, “and probably one of the coolest projects we’ve ever been a part of. The new brand is based entirely on blank urban-vinyl figures (designed by Kidrobot) that absorb the colorful ‘DNA’ of Cartoon Network’s characters and then interact with one another in an endless variety of scenarios.”

The Geek Factor

“Video games have always been a pretty big part of the culture here,” Gave explains, when discussing how his Capacity family blows off steam. “We’ve gone through lots of phases, but the latest is Call of Duty. Nothing says ‘I’m rendering’ like shooting people in the face while the voice of Jack Bauer…expresses his utter disgust in your team’s performance.”

So what’s next on the Capacity horizon? Plenty more work, but also some family time. “Jen and I have an amazing, beautiful, adorable little girl who’s going to be six months old soon,” says Gave. “Regardless of how late I work, I need to be awake, alert, and ready to play at 6:30 or 7 a.m. every morning.”