Ellen Frances

Ellen Frances
Born	July 30, 1981 (1981-07-30) Kansas City, Kansas, U.S.
Residence	New York City
Occupation	Creative director, video director, artist
Years active	1994–present

Ellen Frances (born 1981 Kansas City, Kansas) is an American artist, creative director and video director. She currently lives and works in New York City. Ellen studied design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and later attended Parsons The New School for Design on scholarship. She initially worked as a studio assistant for Ryan McGinness, but soon after went on to work for major companies such as DKNY, Nautica, Atlantic Records / WMG, Fuse TV, VH1, and Madison Square Garden, Inc..; while simultaneously finding successes as a creative director, fine artist and video director.

The music video for the Memory Tapes song Green Knight (CREEP Remix) was directed by Ellen Frances. The video was shot between The Chelsea Hotel and Brooklyn.

In early 2011 Ellen Frances entered into an attachment agreement with William Morris Endeavor to produce/direct the film adaptation of the novel Light Boxes. The film is currently in the early stages of development.

Graphic Design & Art Direction

After working at a junior level for Nautica in 2003, Ellen was hired at DKNY to illustrate original repeat patterns for high-end menswear. Her graphics, patterns and illustrations were used as the lining or accents of pieces in the 2004 collection. Several of her hand drawn graphics appeared on retail items that were sold nationally in stores for the brand's sportswear line. After working in fashion, Ellen moved into music and entertainment by working on the VH1 revival of The Partridge Family.

During her time at Atlantic/WMG, Ellen made creative contributions to famed CEO Lyor Cohen's show The Biz, while also working on packaging for bands such as The Format, Pretty Ricky, Paramore, The Donnas, Antigone Rising and Bloc Party. Her cover for the Unwritten Law single Save Me, which reached #5 on US modern rock charts, was featured on Apple's home page in 2005. Later, while working at Fuse, Ellen contributed to a variety of multi-platform campaigns, marketing initiatives and photographed on-air talent for national billboards. Currently Ellen works as a Creative Director at Madison Square Garden Inc. During her time there Ellen has helped to art direct The Transformation (renovation) of the arena, the sale of major partnerships for all MSG properties and the development of the Absolut Concert Series.

While maintaining staff positions at top entertainment corporations, Ellen continues to work independently on projects for multiple high profile clients including: Smuggler Films (through which her portraits of award winning directors Henry Alex Rubin and Christopher Smith were published in Creativity Magazine), The New Pornographers, Lauren Flax and Sia Furler (More Remixes), as well as illustrations for Spin. Through her blog, she was befriended by and created artwork for: author Tao Lin's Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and for Shane Jones's Light Boxes (Penguin Books US/UK). In 2010 Ellen was asked to re-design the Lumiere award statue for the International 3D Society. Her illustrations and renderings of the winged figure were brought to life by R.S. Owens, best known as the production house of the Oscar. The statue was unveiled at the 2010 awards ceremony held at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Recipients of this award include: Chris Condon, IMAX, DOLBY, Disney, Panasonic and Pixar, among others.

TV, Film and Video

Ellen created on-air graphics for multiple shows that ran on the music network Fuse TV from 2005 -2007. She also aided in production of the award winning Fangoria Chainsaw Awards promos, script writing for on-air spots with Johnny Rotten, and has directed multiple promotional videos for Madison Square Garden Partnerships and Madison Square Garden The Transformation. Ellen has also directed and produced commissioned promotional videos for authors Tao Lin and Shane Jones. The trailer for Shane Jones's Light Boxes was published online through Penguin Books. It was later translated and licensed to Random House Mondadori, Spain and Isb Endizioni, Italy. The trailer was nominated for a Moby Award as well as written up by film site MUBI. Ellen has directed music videos for CREEP (Lauren Flax), DJ Rekha (featuring Zuzuka Poderosa)(2012) and Bella (Ultra Records)(2012).

Fine Art

In 2005 Ellen participated in three group showings of her paintings. Some of these shows were in association with The Antagonist Movement NYC. Beginning in 2008 she held a series of events for artists at the Hotel Chelsea called Art Party at The Salon for Geniuses (I, II, III, IV). It was later acknowledged by writer Ed Hamilton on Living With Legends: Hotel Chelsea. In 2007 Ellen's experimental video Tao Lin VS. Moby was up on 3:AM Magazine. In June 2008, Ellen was a highlighted artist by Culture411 for cultural events in NY for her solo show of experimental videos during the DUMBO Art Crawl. Ellen's short video Unprofessional Ridiculous Childishness was shown during the first segment of the Opium Magazine NY Lit Crawl, in the fall of 2008. She later collaborated with artist James J. Williams III on Wet Space Blanket, a multimedia show made possible through Envoy gallery. Ellen's work has been printed in the zine FakeOrange, an artist collective based out of Brooklyn.

Background

Ellen began dancing at the age of four at a local ballet studio in Kansas. She began training at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet at the age of twelve and later went on to attend the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She attended the Harid Conservatory in high school. She has performed in touring Broadway shows at the Starlight Theatre (Kansas City), with the Kansas City Ballet (under Todd Bolender), the Joffrey Ballet, and worked with famed choreographer Karole Armitage before retiring from her dancing career in 2002. After moving to New York to attend Parsons, she frequently DJ'd popular clubs in downtown Manhattan from 2005-2007.

External links

• _WEBSITE
• _{Ellen Frances Blog}
• _{MUBI: Ellen Frances | Light Boxes Trailer}
• _{Space 15 Twenty (Urban Outfitters): Light Boxes Trailer}
• _{Light Boxes Trailer: Moby Award Nominee}
• _{POP MAGAZINE Online: "Black and White"}
• _{NEW YORK ART BEAT: "Genius Salon"}
• _{COLOR MAGAZINE Stay Gold}
• _{3:AM MAGAZINE Tao Lin VS. Moby by Ellen Frances}
• _{The NY LIT CRAWL}
• _{WET SPACE BLANKET}
• _{CRITICS' PICK at Salon.com}