Gideon Baws, founding member of top directing collective Shynola, passed away suddenly this past Saturday in Los Angeles where he was attending a friend's wedding. He was 33 years old.

Known for their hugely varied and innovative output, Shynola was founded in 1994 after Baws teamed up with Chris Harding, Richard Kenworthy and Jason Groves at Kent Institute of Art and Design. They came to prominence with Kenworthy's graduation film The Little Robo and their Guns Blazing film, which UNKLE's James Lavelle used as his acceptance speech at the NME Brat awards in 1999.

The collective, initially with Oil Factory, signed with Directors Bureau in 2003 and RSA in the UK in 2004. They've created some of the most ground-breaking, multi-award winning music videos of the past decade, including promos for Beck, Queens of the Stone Age, Blur, The Rapture, UNKLE and an "anti-video" blip campaign for Radiohead.

Commercially they also created ads for Nike, PlayStation 2 and Orange as well as providing the animation work for Garth Jennings' feature debut The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The team was working on its feature directing debut.

RSA, London offered a statement concerning the tragic loss. "Gideon will be greatly missed at RSA and Black Dog Films. He is remembered as a brilliant young man, a talented artist, a skilled technician, a sharp wit and perhaps more than anything - a genuinely warm and good human being. When looking back, with fondness, we see a young man with an easy-going, warm disposition, a fun-loving nature and with an intelligent sparkle in his eyes."

Director David OReilly was amongst those in the blogosphere who paid a personal tribute to Baws' creative contribution. "I owe a great debt to Gideon, he effectively gave me my start in animation," he wrote. "Several years ago as a frustrated student I sent Shynola an email; it was Gideon who received it. I'll never forget the day he replied and offered me my first job in the animation world. He helped me find an apartment when I first moved to London. When I was stuck or didn't know how something was done, which happened often when we shared a desk, he would patiently take time to explain it. If it wasn't for Gideon I wouldn't be what I am today."

"Gideon was one of the warmest, most talented and intelligent people you could ever meet. He just radiated creativity in painting, animation, design, drawing, language...everything. His whole character was just formidably talented. He had a wit as sharp as a pin and had a gift for effortlessly making people laugh. He was so funny you would regret not taking notes when you were around him."

To see Shynola's work, please visit their website: http://www.shynola.com/main.htm