Can an arch transform your career path? It did for former BMW designer Chris Bangle, who unveiled his new Delaware-based INANIMATTI prodco and its first kids show in development last week.

Bangle began his career as a car designer in the early ’80s, working at companies like Opel (Germany) and Fiat (Italy). But he is best known for his 17-year tenure at BMW, where he served as the German company’s first-ever American chief of design until 2009. Steering from car design into kids animation may seem like quite a sharp turn, but Bangle says the two fields are actually not all that different. “Car design is putting character and personality into an object to the point where people say—hey, that thing is me.”

With this ethos in mind, Bangle was looking for opportunities to show life in the inanimate. Inspiration struck during a 2013 vacation in Croatia, where he spotted an arch that he began sketching in his notepad. Bangle’s sketches made the structure seem like a living being capable of movement and feeling. “I drew it like a cartoon [from] the ’50s. And when my team saw it, they said: ‘Come on, let’s make a sculpture out of it.'” This marked the start to what would eventually become Arky Arch Adventures, a CG-animated series about a Roman triumphal arch on a journey to discover his true purpose—and Eric Rollman (Skylanders Academy) is on board the project as a producer. 

Bangle and Rollman are currently seeking an animation service company to help make the 13 x 30-minute series, which targets the six to 12 demo. They have a bible they’re presenting to buyers at MIPCOM in October, and Rollman says the project’s zany animation style (objects without human attributes) will be the hook that draws kids in. But he expects the show’s “supremely unique” premise to keep them on the road for the long run. 

Rollman, who has produced more than 100 kids shows over the course of his career, including classic Marvel toons X-Men and Spider-Man Unlimited, discovered the project at MIPCOM in 2018. His love for the unusual pitch, its distinct visual look and Bangle’s unconventional career path made this one to watch, he says. “[I’m] fascinated by this idea of somebody being so successful in one medium, and then finding a way from that to get into our weird business of kids television,” Rollman says. 

Arky‘s atypical origin story began at Bangle’s design work and consulting agency in Italy. Chris Bangle Associates (CBA) built a 13-foot arch based on the car designer’s playful sketches, and visiting kids would always ask about it, motivating Bangle to work up an adventure story explaining the character. 

Before deciding to focus on animation, Bangle created a 13-episode podcast called Arky Arch Adventures in 2015 as an experiment to get a feel for both the character’s world and how to tell a formatted story. 

CBA went on to produce some early animation tests, but Bangle realized the smart business strategy would be to set up IP ownership under INANIMATTI as a separate prodco. He also has ambitious plans to build out a broader universe, featuring dozens of characters based on inanimate objects. And while Arky Arch Adventures will be INANIMATTI’s first animated series, the studio’s long-term plan is to produce several series and spinoffs. To this end, Bangle is working on writing some deep background lore for his budding IP. 

Reflecting on his time spent in the kids industry so far, Bangle says: “I’ve discovered that animation is the key to character and personality. There’s this world that car designers really never really knew about that I feel very privileged to enter.”