ADULT SWIM
Adult Swim invited Pocko to develop a series of 15-second idents—short, memorable bursts of animation that capture the brand’s unmistakable energy. The brief called for work that was bold and visually arresting: the kind of odd moment that appears between shows and lingers in your mind long after.
To shape this collection, we brought together seven Pocko artists and two external studios whose voices naturally align with Adult Swim’s spirit of playful surrealism: Sawako Kabuki, Studio Croma, Ardhira Putra, Andrea Chronopoulos, Andy Baker Studio, Simon Landrein, Jess Mountfield, Quinhui Yu and Crux Animation.
BRAND IDENT - SAWAKO KABUKI
Sawako Kabuki approached her Adult Swim ident by taking a mundane, slightly taboo gesture: nose-picking. And pushing it into a surreal, comedic loop that perfectly suits the network’s off-beat sensibility. In her piece, each pick produces tiny human figures that get flicked away, eventually culminating in a strange, snort-like stream of characters that twist together to reveal the Adult Swim logo. Her signature playful grotesqueness and bold physical humour transform a simple action into an absurd miniature narrative. It captures the irreverent, late-night energy that defines Adult Swim.
RICK AND MORTY - STUDIO CROMA
Studio Croma brought Rick and Morty’s off-the-wall dynamic to their Adult Swim ident. Created in their signature stop motion technique, the ident embraces the film noir aesthetic and sensibilities whilst offering a classic Adult Swim juxtaposition with the final scene reveal. As Morty pushes a wheelbarrow full of coal, sweaty and desperate, he happens upon a lighthouse, its beam cutting through the fog. The frame jumps to show Rick inside the tower, wild-eyed and disheveled, light rotating across his ‘mad prophet’-like face. We then see Morty staring in disbelief, Rick dancing frenetically in the blinding light, naked.
TOONAMI - ARDHIRA PUTRA
Ardhira Putra’s ident for Toonami channels his signature retro-futuristic aesthetic into a fast-paced, narrative-driven sequence that mirrors the show block’s sci-fi, action-heavy identity. His piece opens with a lone character powering up a machine, unleashing a surge of energy that triggers a cascade of glowing LED panels which is a visual nod to Toonami’s tech-forward universe. The scene then accelerates into a high-velocity spaceship flight, bursting through the atmosphere before plunging into a post-apocalyptic cityscape where a colossal robot looms at the centre. Ardhira’s vibrant palette, kinetic pacing, and love for nostalgic mecha culture come together to create a compact hero’s journey. It concludes with the reveal of the Toonami title. Reflecting the block’s legacy of anime, adventure, and futuristic storytelling.
SMILING FRIENDS - ANDREA CHRONOPOULOS
Andrea Chronopoulos’s ident for Smiling Friends distills the show’s off-beat humour into a tightly framed, cinematic sequence with his trademark graphic clarity. The piece follows a furious biker tearing through deserted city streets before abruptly stopping at a tiny tattoo parlour. Inside, a trembling artist begins inking the biker’s chest that is rendered in Andrea’s hyper-realistic style, as two familiar faces slowly emerge: Pim and Charlie. The tension breaks the moment the tattoo is finished, and the biker shifts from rage to a satisfied smile as the Adult Swim title appear. Andrea’s blend of deadpan storytelling and carefully controlled exaggeration perfectly echoes the show’s mix of absurdity, awkwardness, and dark comedic charm.
SMILING FRIENDS - ANDY BAKER STUDIO
Andy Baker Studio highlights Adult Swim’s show Smiling Friends, with a high-octane ident animated with a mix of 2D character and 3D environment, built to look like a paper set and shot like a music video. Dynamic shots of a car drifting in an empty parking lot at night and coming to a sudden stop are followed by a reveal of the tiny Glep against a tuned up, big car. Amplifying the contrasts and subverting the expectations in the usual Adult Swim style, Andy Baker Studio and Pocko delivered another distinctive ident.
SMILING FRIENDS - SIMON LANDREIN
Simon Landrein’s ident for Smiling Friends channels the show’s surreal, darkly comedic spirit through his signature clean lines and absurd visual logic. The sequence unfolds like a living Russian doll: each character emerges from the open mouth of another. Eventually, Glep is spat out and sent flying through the air, only to be abruptly swallowed and chewed by the Smiling Friends building itself. With its looping, understated humour and delightfully strange visual rhythm, Simon’s ident captures the series’ playful, unsettling and off-kilter tone.
BRAND IDENT - JESS MOUNTFIELD
Jess Mountfield’s humorous natural science-inspired ident shows a bustling and frisky world revealed through a magnifying hand lens: tiny frogs making out on the backs of tardigrades, worms breathing fire and glow bugs shaking their backsides to the sounds of a beetle playing a drum. Cute characters’ raunchy moves culminate and contrast with a lonely slug awkwardly holding up a sign with AdultSwim logo. The ident blends Mountfield’s vibrant animation and scientific interest with Adult Swim’s tongue-in-cheek brand.
BRAND IDENT - QUIANHUI YU
The scene in Qianhui Yu’s ident is that of an idyllic date. As the fantastical characters dive into the bowl of soup, their figures dance and spin in the water, forming the Adult Swim logo. Using her signature style of vibrant, imaginative worlds, rich colour palette and adorable, quirky characters, Quinhui’s ident captures the ‘expect the unexpected’ approach synonymous with Adult Swim.
BRAND IDENT - CRUX ANIMATION
In Crux Animation’s ident we see the post-apocalyptic, war-torn world through the (compound) eyes of an anthropomorphic fly protagonist. As he darts and dives in between rubble and wreckage, he seems to be the sole survivor of this horror. As he finally stops, a giant fly swatter looms over him. Tension intensifies as he uses his laser gun to try and halt the impact - but it’s too late, he is crushed. His splattered remains spell out the Adult Swim logo. The combination of cinematic intensity and subverted hero journey is a classic example of Adult Swim’s signature incongruous, dark humour.