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| - In 1987 with no prior art education Len Smith walked into Hanna-Barbera studio with a home-made cardboard portfolio under his arm. Len’s appointment was with Harry Love, a longtime veteran of animation (you will see his name on the classic Tom and Jerry cartoons). Ten minutes into the meeting Harry left the room. When he returned Len was asked if he could start work the same day. Len Smith has been working in cartoons ever since. From H-B Len went to Disney Feature Animation where he designed Toontown for the film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. After “Roger” wrapped Len went on to Disney Television animation. At Disney TV he worked on the Emmy award winning series “The New Adventures of “Winnie the Pooh”. Len designed many of the main characters for “Talespin” (Kit Cloudkicker), “Bonkers” and “Little Mermaid” series. After six years in TV animation Len decided to try something new and transferred to Disney Consumer products. As assistant art director Len was assigned the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” property. Len worked with outside vendors to produce the highest quality product for a very important character line. While at consumer products Len also designed the mascot for the “Anaheim Mighty Ducks” professional hockey team. Len Smith went on to start a consumer products division at Film Roman studio. Working on properties including “The Simpsons”, “Garfield”, “Bobby’s World” and many others. At Film Roman Len designed the mascot for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. In 1996 Len was hired by Mattel to create their entire puzzle line. A line which included Disney,Sesame Street, Barbie, Hot Wheels and Nickelodeon. He remained at Mattel for five years as a staff designer in the Infant-Preschool division. Currently, Len is a freelance artist with clients including Disney Animation, Disney Publishing, Warner Brothers Consumer Products, Sony Wonder, Mattel, Fisher-Price, Playhouse Pictures, Hasbro, Marvel, Toy-Biz, The Los Angeles Dodgers, The Atlanta Braves, Aquawood Toys, Jakks-Pacific and others.
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