IOVO designs

IOVO designs was the brain child of Robert Brinkmann, whose interest in design and embarrassment as a cat owner drove him to dream up a better looking cat litter box. Together with designer Dan Panosian, they developed the Litterfish. IOVO designs is starting out by offering the Litterfish directly to consumers via an e-commerce site. Other products, including more fun pet products are already in the pipeline.

DAN PANOSIAN

Dan Panosian was born in Cleveland, Ohio to artistic parents and started school in Central Florida.  His father, a former professional boxer turned art director and his mother, a former runner-up Miss Arizona turned art teacher never pushed him to pursue an art career but he almost didn’t have a choice.  At age 14, Dan sent an art submission to Marvel Comics.  Surprisingly, they responded with plenty of encouragement.  An envelope filled with the company’s pay scale, benefits program and other criteria turned a boy’s fantasy job into a distinct possibility for the near future.  After graduating high school with a few small comic book credits to his name he had an opportunity to showcase his work at the New York Comic Convention where he met comic book art legends Neal Adams and Walter Simonson.  Neal Adams offered him a position at his ad agency Continuity Graphics and Walt Simonson called his editor at Marvel Comics and immediately he was working for both companies.  Upon entering the Marvel offices for the first time he was greeted by the same Submissions Editor [ now a series editor ] that corresponded with him as a child.  In his office was a “thank you” illustration hanging on his wall from the 14 year old Dan Panosian.

After working on back up features for Captain America, Batman, Spiderman and Thor, Dan’s work caught the eye of the artistic teams working on the X-Men line of comic books.  When Marvel’s top artistic talents left to form Image Comics he was asked to join them and began illustrating comics that often sold close to a million copies each month, sometimes more.  The move from Manhattan to Los Angeles introduced new emerging artistic opportunities such as storyboarding and video game design to his growing resume.  Dan became the lead designer on a new video game from Dreamworks Interactive about the animals that embody the spirit of Kung-Fu.  The original game caught the attention of Steven Spielberg and became the springboard for the blockbuster movie, Kung-Fu Panda.  Shortly after, Dan was doing the lead design work for the best selling video game, Duke Nukem. 

Dan Panosian, Inc was formed and he received an Addy Award for the DSL ad campaign, Jack Flash, and quickly started working with movie and commercial studios providing design and storyboard work.  Between book and magazine illustration, apparel lines and toy design Dan began to miss working in the comic book industry.

Now married and still living in Los Angeles, Dan manages to balance commercial art projects with a steady stream of comic book work for Marvel, DC and Image Comics.  He also co-founded the Original Drink and Draw Social Club, which boasts charter groups and publications world wide.

ROBERT BRINKMANN

Robert Brinkmann was born and raised in Braunschweig, Germany, and took an early interest in the visual arts, making Super 8 movies in high school and spending so much time at the local revival cinema, that he was offered a job and ended up working there. He moved to Berlin, because it had better cinemas and, after graduating early and at the top of his class, to New York, where the cinemas were even better.

After watching over 700 films in one year, he continued his formal education at the University of Southern California, where he eventually specialized in cinematography. His final project, The Last Chance Dance, earned a number of awards, including the Focus Award for Best Cinematography, and landed the director, Phil Joanou, a place at Stephen Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment.

After graduating Suma Cum Laude from USC, Robert formed a production company with two friends and started to produce and shoot music videos, commercials and documentaries. The company, Cinescope Productions, produced several hundred small music videos, for which he hired his fellow students from USC. Many accomplished filmmakers, including Jay Roach, Lance Accord, Harris Done got their first directing job working for Cinescope Productions.

Phil Joanou and Robert Brinkmann teamed up again for the rock ‘n’ roll documentary “U2: Rattle and Hum” as well as many commercials and music videos. At the time that he was hired to shoot the John Travolta movie “Shout” for Universal Pictures, he was the youngest DP working in the studio system in Hollywood.

Following his passion, Robert left his company and producing behind to focus on cinematography. He also met the photographer, James Fee, whose work so inspired him, that the two worked together for 15 years, with Robert sponsoring the artist and in the process accumulating one of the premier photography collections in Los Angeles. Robert has donated portfolios of James’ work to the Getty Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art and MOCA LA, amongst others from his own collection, and he is the Trustee of the artist’s estate.

Robert’s passion for the visual arts remains undaunted and finds expression in various forms, including his dream to make the world a more beautiful place through design. He hopes that IOVO designs will eventually offer a whole range of products conceived by various artists and designers.