character-design
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System Studios builds worlds, right down to the gloves
From dwarven armour to MARVEL SNAP illustrations, System Studios supplies the details that make other people’s game worlds convincing. Its portfolio is a lesson in looking past the box art.
Ladybird's big idea: let the pictures do the talking
A blue hippo, a rolling hedgehog, and a kingdom of fools: Ladybird Entertainment's catalog reveals how an Iranian animation studio thinks about children, comedy, and stories that travel.
9B Collective Is Drawing Hollywood’s Next Cast of Creators
The Black-owned concept art studio helped imagine Blue Beetle’s world. Its bigger project is changing who gets hired to imagine the next one.
Mana Animation Studio Gives Familiar Worlds a Different Kind of Motion
From Deadpool’s hand-drawn antics to Shohei Ohtani’s anime alter ego, Mana builds animation around the character of the job. Its project breakdowns reveal the craft, coordination and occasional three-week sprint behind the pictures.
OpenArt AI
OpenArt AI is a San Francisco-based AI creative platform founded in 2022 by former Google engineers Coco Mao and John Qiao. The platform aggregates 100+ AI models - including DALL-E 3, Stable Diffusion, Google Veo 3, Kling, and Sora - under a single interface, letting creators generate images, videos, music, and 3D environments without switching tools. From hobbyists making tabletop RPG art to agencies building brand-consistent content at scale, OpenArt serves roughly 8 million monthly active users. The company reached $70M+ ARR in 2025 with a 20-person team, then closed a $30M Series A led by Canaan Partners in January 2026.