Ed Eyth Interview Part 6

Ed Eyth has had an extensive and diverse artistic career. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and prior to that majored in Visual Communication at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He has served as a production designer, a set and costume designer and a puppet designer for a variety of film and television productions. His film credits include Hook, The Rocketeer and Captain EO.

For nearly 10 years Eyth was Director of Creative Services for the Jim Henson Company. While at Henson, he designed characters for shows like Muppets Tonight, Mopatop's Shop and Animal Jam, as well as the video feature Kermit's Swamp Years. I asked him to share his thoughts on puppet design.



PJ: Was it challenging to create characters that reflected your personal style that were also consistent with the classic Muppet look?

EE: Muppets do have a distinctive look, and at the same time there is such a wide range of characters within the Muppet style. So it was pretty easy to assimilate enough of those consistent visual features while improvising and making a little ego investment.

But I have to say, I have so much respect for Jim and the Muppets that with any design assignment my ongoing motivation was to maintain Jim's spirit and the essence of the Muppet style while trying to encourage the evolution of relevant, appealing new characters.