It's not often platonic business partners throw around phrases like "love at first sight" and "pure serendipity" in reference to one another, but given the success of their first year together, one can surely forgive Diane McArter and James Studholme for choosing to remain sprawled out on the honeymoon deckchairs a little while longer. Eighteen months ago, Studholme's UK prodco Blink was in the middle of a promising year punctuated by a handful of looming questions. McArter, meanwhile, was preparing to lead her own LA-based Omaha Pictures into its seventh year and wondering if it wasn't time for a change.

It wasn't long after they were introduced by Outsider EP Robert Campbell (a man whom Studholme affectionately refers to as "Furlined's God-Bob") that the twosome realized how much they had in common. Shortly thereafter, Omaha started repping Blink upstarts Dougal Wilson and Stuart Parr in the US, and the pair got their first taste of working with one another. "The fact that we spent nearly a year chatting before we [started a partnership means that] we got to know each other incredibly well," Studholme says. "We got to understand each other's motivations, passions, and what it is that makes the other person tick."

Omaha's eventual dissolution paved the way for the duo to enter into a full partnership. Boasting a roster that included former Omaha mainstays Speck/Gordon, Brian Aldrich, Zach Math and Charlie White, Blink homegrowns Wilson and Parr, Blink video offshoot Colonel Blimp and animation arm Blinkink (home of the likes of Pleix and Lynn Fox), Furlined stood out from its American counterparts from day one. According to McArter, Furlined's "rich, eclectic roster" and access to Blinkink's "art-based culture" resonated with agencies from the start. "The volume was strong and the interest was tremendous," she says of the prodco's June launch. "When James and I made the decision to do something new - I look back and think it was the smartest thing we ever did."

Furlined's breakout success in 2005 dovetailed with a monster year for Blink in the UK, one in which, thanks to Orange "Dance", Wilson made overtures to upper echelon superstardom and in which Lynn Fox and Pleix graduated from CG video nerd godheads to viable commercial commodities. Given that agencies wouldn't even meet with Lynn Fox in the early years, '05 has proven particularly satisfying, but Studholme says he's not finished yet. "I still think we've got a long way to go," he says. "There's some interesting talent coming out of Colonel Blimp. [Plus] Blinkink is only a year old and that's really found its feet."

Looking ahead, Furlined is hoping for similar breakout years from Math, Aldrich and visual artist-cum-director White, while Blink is banking on big things from Finland's Pekka Hara and animator Ruairi Robinson. While both prodcos revel in the success of their superstar talent (a week after this interview, Furlined added former Villains big gun Douglas Avery), it's their love for finding new directors, says McArter, that unites them. "[With James] it was clear that I'd met someone who shared that absolute utter passion for developing talent," she says.

Having a partnership that extends across continents gives both sides a security they'd previously lacked. It's a stability that Studholme was after with Blink USA, his ill-fated foray into the American market in 2004, a venture which he now describes as "perhaps a bit too naïve." Nonetheless, with his UK competitors losing directors to the American market, it was a mechanism he knew he had to have in place. "That was the guiding philosophy - finding a way that meant we could put our directors on a plane to America with great happiness."

And happiness is the operative word. When asked how she gauges a successful year, McArter adopts a simple measure. "I want to look back at each year and think 'God, I had fun.' It wasn't always a business priority in the past, but it is now."

Blink> www.blinkprods.com
Furlined> www.furlined.com