PSU and local stop motion animation studio LAIKA announced a new partnership to “create a more inclusive creative regional workforce.” PSU and LAIKA officially crossed paths for the first time with this new development. However, together they have quite an extensive, unofficial relationship with a handful of PSU Alumni Working at the Studio. These Alumni provided their own stories of how they got here from PSU and how to apply the skills they learned in their program to their positions at LAIKA.
One of these Alumni is a Rapid Prototype Production Supervisor at the LAIKA, Zaneta Taylor.
“The graphic design program… gave you the skills to hone your abilities, but also about how to have a career as a creative person and help approach problem solving,” Taylor said. “It opened up new avenues of design that lead to new ways of applying my skills that eventually led to what I’m doing now.”
The new initiative represents the first official collaboration between LAIKA and PSU, despite their deep-rooted unofficial connections.
“We’ve had these smaller opportunities where students get to work at a firm as incredible as LAIKA, so formally solidifying this is very exciting,” said Lis Charman, Director and Professor of the Schnitzer School of Art, Art History and Design.
“These opportunities for students, faculty fellows and mentorships offer a deeper, more thoughtful approach to how we connect. It’s much more of a partnership,” said Charman.
The collaboration between LAIKA and PSU is part of an ongoing initiative LAIKA has taken over the past few years to continue cultivating its position as one of Portland’s leading creative forces.
LAIKA recently collaborated with local artists and Stumptown Coffee Roasters for the city-wide Coraline catwalk for the 15 year anniversary of the film Coraline. LAIKA previously partnered with Portland Community College to help fund a stop-motion program.
Graphic Designer in LAIKA’s Creative Marketing Department and PSU Alumni Sam Turoff-Ortmeyer shared insights about recent local engagement.
“We wanted to do a lot of our initiatives in Portland,” Turoff-Ortmeyer said. “We wanted to show that LAIKA was a part of Portland—that Portland is a place for these creatives to come. It’s really cool to see that LAIKA is focusing more on interacting with Portland.”
Turoff-Ortmeyer mentioned LAIKA’s next film, Wildwood—which takes place in Portland, is likely another motivator for the studios’ increased interest in local engagement.
“With our next film, there will be a lot of aspects of Portland in it,” Turoff-Ortmeyer said. “I just love the thought of LAIKA creating this miniature version of Portland—it’s an exciting place to work.”
Given LAIKA’s growing interest in the city, it was only a matter of time before PSU and LAIKA officially collaborated. Associate Professor and Director of PSU Film School Kristin Hole, expressed enthusiasm about this connection.
“It’s very exciting for us in film, because of how natural of a connection it is,” Hole said. “Yes, you can move to LA or Atlanta, but we have a world-class stop motion animation studio here, so developing that relationship in terms of job placement and connection to the industry is something we actively work on in the department, so it’s really exciting for us.”
With the new initiative, LAIKA will fund faculty members to create a new curriculum in collaboration with the studio.
“In film… we can have a diverse and nontraditional student body, so giving them those skills and directly mentoring them in areas that are employable, will help diversify these industries,” Hole said.
The initiative also involves a program to support the development of students in the PSU Art Program with help from LAIKA’s creative team, to help diversify and support the region’s creative industries.
Turoff-Ortmeyer echoed a very similar position from LAIKA’s perspective and expanded upon the importance of diversity at a studio like LAIKA.
“Everyone has a perspective to pull from their own experience and bring to LAIKA,” Turoff-Ortmeyer said. “I think that’s the part that makes LAIKA shine as a studio. Going to Portland State, there are so many people with so many different backgrounds and LAIKA is working with PSU to push interest and really encourage creativity. It helps LAIKA, PSU and Portland as a whole to help… broaden people’s horizons.”
The partnership will officially begin in Spring 2025—with the announcement of the faculty who will be involved in the new curriculum—and will be followed by the announcement of student scholarships in the Fall.
