Bullseye Art
New York City based art collective
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bullseye Art was a New York City-based art collective that pioneered art and animation on the web. Founded in 1995 by Josh Kimberg, Nick Cogan and Ryan Edwards,[1] the company gained fame for creating unique and offbeat interactive cartoons made using Macromedia Flash.
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Animation, digital art, web entertainment |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Founders | Josh Kimberg, Nick Cogan, Ryan Edwards |
| Defunct | 2003 |
| Successor | Magic Butter / Raw Power |
Key people | Josh Kimberg (Creative Director), Nick Cogan (Animator), Ryan Edwards (Producer) |
| Website | bullseyeart.com (archived) |
Bullseye Art became well known for its humour with such cartoons as Porkchops, which portrayed a talking donkey in surrealistic situations, and Miss Muffy and the Muff Mob, about a band of rapping muffin-headed girls.[2][3] A dragon named Hooptie-Goo often appeared as a mascot during the opening or closing credits. Other multi-episode cartoons included Internet – The Animated Series, Rat Chicken, Space Dog, Makin' Moves and The Rhino and Nutmeg Show.[4]
The company was commissioned to do several high-profile cartoon segments, the most notable of which was the opening titles for The Rosie O'Donnell Show, for which they were nominated for two Emmy Awards.[5] The animated opening was the first work of Flash Animation to appear on television.[6] They also created the music videos First Tube and You Enjoy Myself for the rock band Phish.[7]
Bullseye Art maintained a free entertainment portal featuring many of the first community features now standard on the internet. Revenue was driven by licensing their cartoons to third-party sites (Atom Films, Shockwave.com, HBO's Volume.com,[1] Razorfish) and from commercial animation (Icebox.com, Kenny the Shark). Bullseye Art shut its doors in 2003, and the founders started a production company named Raw Power. During this period (2003–2004), most of the cartoons were unavailable.
In 2005, Josh Kimberg launched the cartoons under the new name Magic Butter.[8] While initially a pay site, MagicButter.com eventually became free, displaying all of the old content along with new cartoons, T-shirts for sale, and free downloads such as MP3s, desktop wallpapers, and icons until it shut down.