Imaginary Forces

Imaginary Forces Names Anita Olan Executive Producer/General Manager of New York Office


Ten-year veteran rejoins studio to lead East Coast efforts in commercials, broadcast, new media and Experience Design

New York, NY– February 12, 2009 – Design and production studio Imaginary Forces has named Anita Olan to the position of Executive Producer/General Manager of its New York office.  The announcement was made jointly by Peter Frankfurt and Chip Houghton, co-founders and co-managing directors of the company.

The move is a homecoming for Olan. One of the company’s longest-tenured employees, she spent over a decade with IF, both in its Hollywood and New York offices.  During this time she worked on every aspect of the company’s business, from leading its production department and developing strategy and creative for major network rebranding efforts to producing innovative entertainment content for such clients as Animal Planet and Lexus.

Olan returns to IF after having spent two years working on a variety of freelance projects, including developing, directing, and producing a pilot for NBC and serving as Creative Director at Frame by Frame, a design and post-production company based in Rome, Italy.  During this time she also led IF’s creative and strategic development on five short films for Lexus’ L Studio.

“Anita knows us intimately,” says Frankfurt.  “She’s incredibly talented, and has the advantage of having left the studio and expanded her own horizons professionally. Now that she’s back, we’re looking for her to bring those experiences back to bear on her role at IF.”

“Peter and I have worked closely with Anita for years, and she understands how we like to approach production,” adds Houghton.  “We fully expect her to put her stamp on projects, both from a production standpoint as well as a creative and strategic one. She consistently adds to the process, and helps our work evolve.”

Olan’s mandate, Frankfurt continues, will be to help the New York office continue to grow and expand on its wide palette of work, as well as take a hands-on role in the development of new opportunities for its roster of directors, including Karin Fong, Mark Gardner, and Steve Fuller.

A native New Yorker, Olan graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History and Italian and a Master’s in Comparative Literature.  She joined IF in its production department in 1998 and worked her way up from Producer to Head of Production and Executive Producer. Her interests overlapped both the execution of the studio’s work and the strategy and creative behind its rebranding and design projects, according to Houghton.

“Anita was drawn to collaborating more closely with clients and with our creative staff,” he explains. “She participated in making client presentations and pitching work, usually partnering with Peter Frankfurt. The two of them became a powerful team, building up a strong bond of trust with clients and helping our studio close on a number of significant projects.”

As IF’s Hollywood-based Head of Production, she oversaw the studio’s output across disciplines, including all of its commercial production for such brands as Honda and Nike, as well as its work in feature marketing, titles sequences, and network branding.  During this time the studio worked on such films as Men In Black II, The Stepford Wives and The Chronicles of Narnia, among others.

Olan also played a key strategic and production role in the studio’s work for a number of media clients, leading the IF team on its groundbreaking Lifetime rebranding projects in 2000 and 2006, as well as its USA Network “Characters Welcome” rebrand, which rolled out in 2005.  Olan not only helped create the “Whoa Sunday” program for Animal Planet, but also supervised every aspect of its production, working from IF’s New York offices.

Houghton describes Olan as a 360-degree talent, one capable of seamlessly moving from one area of the studio’s work to another, and between functions and departments:  “She’s completely comfortable working with clients, with creative teams and with our design, production and post production people,” he says.  “She knows branding, she knows identity, she knows content and she knows long form, and has proven herself in each discipline. On top of that, she gets IF 2.0—not just the work we’re known for and have done so well in the past, but the new forms of media and communications we’ll be creating in the future.”

For Olan, her return to IF was a matter of the stars aligning. “I think it’s a perfect time for me to return to New York and to IF,” she says, “especially in this new role where I see a great opportunity to simultaneously build on what the studio has already accomplished and bring in the most exciting new opportunities, regardless of the genre or discipline. It’s a very exciting time.”