A SMALL outfit with a big dream - the phrase exemplifies the spirit of home-grown animation content provider Scrawl Studios. The creative boutique, which has a staff strength of 35, has set its sights firmly on becoming a world-class developer of high-quality animation content with an international appeal.

'We felt the necessity to be export-driven because the production cost for animation is much higher than live action or variety shows. We decided from day one that our animation titles had to take on the international market in order to be viable,' said Seng Choon Meng, chief executive and one of the founding members of Scrawl.

'We're not operating against our peers on the local scene. I think a lot of the time, people forget that the real competition is out there,' added Mr Seng.

The studio is benchmarking itself against top names in the animation industry such as Nickelodeon, Disney, Cartoon Network and PBS from the US, Marathon from France, and Sunrise and Gonzo of Japan.

And Mr Seng is confident that Scrawl can match the standards of its international competitors within one or two years.

What started off as a burning passion for art and illustration grew into a thriving business, thanks to the determination of Mr Seng and his close friends.

Before Scrawl, Mr Seng took up freelance illustration assignments while working for news agency Reuters and local television broadcaster MediaCorp.

Before joining hands with Mr Seng, Scrawl's co-founders Wong Chi Kong and James Tan produced short films, comic-book illustrations and mobile phone game designs.

The three finally realised their dream of starting their own studio in 2001.

Scrawl's early success in attracting commissions for illustrations and character designs allowed it to branch into more capital-intensive projects like children's books and short animations for children's television programmes.

This, in turn, brought about a shift in the company's direction as Mr Seng and his team made the crucial decision of diversifying the company away from being purely service and commission-based to producing its own intellectual property (IP).

'We want to be an IP creator, owner and developer,' Mr Seng said.

Scrawl has not looked back since the development of its first original animated series, Nanoboy, in 2004. The series has been sold to Thailand and South Korea and is pending distribution in the US and Europe. It will also be screened in Singapore on Kids Central later this year.

An agreement signed in 2006 with the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) provided Scrawl with the funds to develop five animation products worth a total of $34 million from 2006 to 2009. One of the works included a series for international distributor Decode Entertainment.

Scrawl also secured a second deal with the MDA to develop a second season of Nanoboy, and sold its pre-school animation series Milly Molly to international children's entertainment network Nickelodeon in 2007.

Looking back on the company's milestones, Mr Seng remarked that establishing Scrawl as an internationally recognised creative house had not been smooth sailing, especially since it was operating as a pioneer in a fledgling industry. For instance, Scrawl's production staff faced a steep learning curve in acquiring the technical competencies needed for them to meet the high standards demanded by international distributors.

A prototype of Scrawl's first animation project Nanoboy was rejected by its international distributor due to 'certain key defects and quality issues'. This forced the company to return to the scripting stage and delay the commercialisation of the series.

'We did an intensive post-mortem and identified that the problem was caused by issues in the production script due to inexperienced writers. But within three months, we redeveloped the prototype and were ready to launch it,' said Mr Seng.

The company emerged stronger from the setback, and has become more attuned to the concerns of its international partners.

'They have concerns with our standards, whether we have the right production values. We assure them that we can produce the episodes and bring them onto the international market,' said Mr Seng.

Scrawl continually refines its production capabilities by collecting feedback from its clients and tapping the experience of seasoned animators from Canada and the UK on a consultancy basis.

Despite its international focus, Mr Seng insists that Scrawl has not given up its Singaporean roots. 'Our work is inspired by local talent - all our designers and developers are from Singapore, and I think there is no lack of creativity here,' said Mr Seng.

He admitted, however, that the scarcity of talent is another problem for the company, as the local animation community is still young.

To identify and recruit the best artists and animators, Scrawl offers internships to students in digital media schools at the local polytechnics. Mr Seng himself sits on the advisory board of the School of Interactive Media and Design at Nanyang Polytechnic.

Going forward, Scrawl intends to diversify its product mix by developing a slate of 15 original animation titles for different media, which includes television, film, video or the Internet markets. It hopes to create at least one hit international franchise from this slate.

'In five to 10 years' time, we hope to have a brand name synonymous with quality and a presence in the US, Europe and key Asian markets,' said Mr Seng.

The company aims to expand its geographical reach and secure more distribution deals by setting up representatives in the US and Europe by 2009 and a sales office in China by 2010.

To gain more revenue from the commercialising of each animation title, Scrawl will increase its share of intellectual property ownership in each project from 25 to 35 per cent to above 60 per cent.

Mr Seng hopes to grow the company's profits to $2 million annually and to increase profitability to $24 million a year so it may qualify for an initial public offering (IPO) within the next five years.

'An IPO will take the company to another level, helping us to raise funds or acquire companies with a complementary suite of content or capabilities,' said Mr Seng.

With the size of the global animation industry expected to expand at 7.7 per cent from 2006 to 2010, and the total value of the industry expected to hit US$92 billion by 2012, perhaps the time is right for Scrawl to take on the world.

This article was first published in The Business Times on May 10, 2008.