Can't beat 'em? Join 'em!

In case you’ve been dozing in the shade of a large boulder, you might have missed some pretty significant news coming out of the world of retouching. And no doubt an interesting indication of the current environment. Earlier this month, two of Australia’s prominent production specialists and retouching houses, Electric Art and Cream Studios, merged to become Cream Electric Art. Their aim is to bridge their collective talent and industry expertise to deliver a broader creative offering.

Delivering across an expanding number of different media, the new team at Cream Electric Art is made up of 20 specialists with extensive experience in CGI and creative retouching, working across stills, motion, interactive, VR, and AR.

Founders of Cream Electric Art, Bruce Bigelow (ex-Electric Art) and Steve York (ex-Cream Studios) believe the future of quality creative production rests on the studio’s ability to create striking, beautifully crafted assets that span across a range of media. “As our world of print moves into motion we knew we needed a bigger team with the same skill and vision as us,” York says. “EA has always been our biggest rival so we would not have chosen anyone else.” Bigelow says that he and York have always had a mutual respect, and when York floated the idea of merging, it seemed like a “no-brainer.”

The merger sees Cream Electric Art working out of the Buckingham Street studio in Surry Hills.