Today we’d like to introduce you to Carl Cleanthes.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started Epic Made in 2006 as a small art and design studio. Twenty years later it’s a full 2D animation, illustration, and motion graphics shop that has made entertainment-quality work for brands like Netflix, Nickelodeon, Hasbro, and Asmodee.
The most exciting chapter is the one happening right now. Everyone can make content today. Almost no one can tell you what’s worth making. So we’ve rebuilt Epic Made around that gap. Instead of only producing the work, we now step in as a brand’s fractional creative director (me at the CCO level, our Creative Director at the CD level) and run creative direction and marketing strategy alongside their own team, with our studio and twenty years of craft attached when they need it built. It’s the kind of judgment that used to live only inside big entertainment companies, made available to fandom-driven brands in gaming, entertainment, and tech.
Around the studio I’ve built a platform at the intersection of art, creative, technology, and the culture that brings them together. I host the Pixel Retentive Podcast, about 160 episodes of conversations with the people shaping creative business. I paint under the name Colorful Carl, continuing my late father’s 700-piece archive in a posthumous collaboration. For over three years straight, I did this as a weekly live stream, which is on a short hiatus while I retool it for what comes next. And as Advocacy Co-Chair of the Graphic Artists Guild, I fight for artists’ rights, including how AI gets built and used, because I believe there is a right way to do it.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not even close. Twenty years in a creative business is twenty years of feast and famine. Not to mention all the economic upheaval and technological advances since 2006.
One hard lesson was revenue concentration. At one point, a single client was roughly three-quarters of our income, and when their team turned over and the work went away, our revenue nearly halved almost overnight. It was nobody’s fault, but it exposed the real problem: we were a great studio with no floor under it.
The second struggle was pricing. Like a lot of creative shops, we priced from the bottom up, adding up what production would cost, and never fully charged for the judgment, the direction, and the years of experience that actually made the work good. We were quietly giving away the most valuable thing we had.
The hardest part has been mastering my own mind. From my innate ADHD and the anxiety that comes with it to my own imposter syndrome. For at least a decade I ran fast in every direction that seemed exciting, without taking time to pause and plan, which made it hard to gain traction. Even after we reached a level most studios never do, with hundreds of businesses across every sector, from small startups to some of the biggest companies in the world, trusting my team and me to help them grow and expand, I still couldn’t bring myself to call myself a marketer. The work we make at Epic Made is marketing that performs, and I had years of proof, but I kept hiding behind “art director.” Owning that word, and charging for the thinking and not just the making, is a big part of what the current rebuild is about.
The upside is that every one of those struggles pointed at the same fix, and that’s the company we’re building now.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a creative director, artist, and marketer, and I’ve spent twenty years at the intersection of art, creative, technology, and the culture that brings them together. My specialty is creative direction that performs: figuring out what a brand should make and why it will land with the people it’s for, then making sure the work is good enough to earn a fan and not just an impression. I’ve done that for hundreds of businesses, from startups to some of the biggest companies in the world, mostly in gaming, entertainment, and tech.
I’m probably known for a few different things depending on who you ask. Some people know me as Colorful Carl, for bold, painterly, psychedelic surreal art (cosmic figures, sacred geometry, a lot of color). Some know me from the Pixel Retentive Podcast and my years of live streaming art and conversation. And some know me from my advocacy work with the Graphic Artists Guild, where I fight for artists’ rights and for AI being built and used the right way, with clean provenance and a human directing it.
What I’m most proud of is building a life of creativity and freedom where I get to be myself and live life on my terms and try to help others do the same.
What sets me apart is that I have both depth and breadth in my industry expertise. I’m deeply passionate about the intersection of creativity, business, and technology, and the people who bring it all together, and I’ve built real depth in all of it: business, marketing, technology (including AI and Web3), and artists’ rights and copyright. So I’m a working artist who runs a business, a marketer who can actually make the thing, and an advocate who understands the technology he’s pushing for or against and why. Most people in this industry are one of those. Being all of them is why clients trust my judgment, not just my hands.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
What I love: this is home. My mother’s side of the family has been in Southeast Virginia and Northeast North Carolina since the 1700s. Every time I step off a plane or cross the state line in my car, something in me settles. It just feels like home.
I love the nature that’s still here. I grew up in Pungo, and I still love the long drives through the country out to my brother’s restaurants, Blue Pete’s and Redhead Bay Cafe. Two of my favorite places in the world are right here too: Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge and the Great Dismal Swamp. When I need to reset my mind and check out from society for a while, that’s where I go.
The region has also given me room to build a life on my own terms. It isn’t an expensive place to live, so I’ve been able to run a studio, paint, podcast, and stream for twenty years without the overhead crushing me. And since there aren’t many people here doing what I do, it’s pushed me to build community instead of competing for it.
And the people. The South isn’t for everyone, no question, but our little corner of VA still has that thread of charm and hospitality woven into the community here, far more than you’ll ever feel in a big city.
What I don’t love: the big industrial ports. They’re ugly, void of green, and a drag to drive past every time I’m out. And the traffic is the worst. Between the tunnels and the bridges, I don’t even try to go anywhere during rush hour (and around here there’s more than one). My industry also lives in LA, New York, and Austin, so I’ve had to build my network over Zoom, podcasts, and plane tickets instead of running into it at lunch.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.epicmade.net, www.colorfulcarl.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/epicmade
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/epicmade
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cleanthes/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EpicMade
