By Justin Fenton
Enquirer staff writer

Chris Gliebe, design director at Lightborne in Over-the-Rhine, works on an animated proposal. The company's video post-production work includes Bad Religion's video for "Los Angeles is Burning." Photos by MEGGAN BOOKER/The Enquirer

Fred Hecht is president and chief operating officer of Lightborne, which started out making workplace safety videos. In the background is creative director Ben Nicholson.

OVER-THE-RHINE - It would probably be easier for graphic design company Lightborne Inc. to be based on the East Coast. Or the West Coast. Most of its big-ticket clients are.

"When you are looking at clients in Los Angeles or New York or even Nashville, they say, 'My God, Cincinnati?' " says president and chief operating officer Fred Hecht. "You have to disprove that to them."

Lightborne, a post-production company that creates spots for retail, advertising and the music industry, appears to be doing just that. Its stop-motion animation music video for punk band Bad Religion's single "Los Angeles is Burning" has topped the charts in Germany and recently started airing in the United States on MTV.

That success appears to be just what the 20-year-old company, which started out producing workplace safety training videos, was overhauled in the mid-1990s to achieve.

Lightborne is exploring collaborations with such labels as Warner Brothers, Sony and Geffen, with the aim of being their one-stop production shop.

"My generation of people and the kids that are coming behind me are a lot more creatively inclined," says creative director Ben Nicholson. "We know the limitations of the tools we have. We know what we can do and what time frame.

"You can categorize it as post-production, (but) the biggest thing we're proud of is our ability to solve problems."

Lightborne was looking for a dramatic change when Cincinnati businessman Tom Schiff moved the eight-person company from Vine Street to the old Excelsior Steam Laundry building on 14th Street in 1994.

Designer Jose Garcia recast the dormant building to create a working space with the ambience of a studio apartment building. The 27,000-square-foot building now has glass walls that encase the ventilation ducts, contemporary furniture, custom-made hand-blown glass lights and a full-service studio where there had been a loading dock.

As the company's physical space was changing, Hecht was busy overhauling its focus, expanding to 22 employees - mostly University of Cincinnati graphic design graduates - and transitioning from the safety videos to directing and editing hard rock, hip-hop and country music videos for networks such as MTV.

"I said, 'I don't want to do this ma and pa stuff. We're going to go for the whole enchilada if we go for it,' " recalls Hecht.

Punk, hip-hop

The past year has been particularly productive for Lightborne, which edited two music videos for country superstar Kenny Chesney.

It also directed and produced videos for punk band The Get Up Kids and hip-hop artist Atmosphere that the company created entirely in and around Cincinnati.

But it's the Bad Religion video that may launch the company into the ranks of MTV mainstays. The band's new album, The Empire Strikes First, is being called the "sonic equivalent of (the film) Fahrenheit 9/11."

"The initial charge from them was, 'Do whatever you want.' The song is obviously about the destruction of Los Angeles, and how it's poised on the edge of greatness and oblivion," said Nicholson, 29. "We took that and came up with some imagery that would match it."

Using stop-motion animation, the video has a flipbook look, with singer Greg Graffin portrayed as a television news anchor with devil's horns fanning the flames of the burning city.

Since then, Nicholson said, the company has worked on eight different treatments, including one for rock band Chevelle that is on hold as studio execs ponder what song should be the lead single.

"Welcome to the wonderful world of music videos," Nicholson laughs.

Working from Cincinnati has gone from a hindrance to a non-issue. MTV wanted to work with a New York company for a Beastie Boys concert promo, but Lightborne's treatment "knocked their socks off."

Now it's working on $400,000 worth of projects for MTV2.

Nicholson says location has become part of the company's allure - something that sets it apart.

"People say, 'Why are they in Cincinnati? I'm intrigued,' " he said.

Kerri Borsuk, who works in marketing for Bad Religion's label, Epitaph, said the group reluctantly agreed to use Lightborne at the urging of Atmosphere's management but found the quality of the firm's work to be "amazing."

"They were so easy to work with - they're amazing, so talented," she said. "They totally appreciate their clients. It's like finely-tuned detail, everything they do."

Next: Store displays?

Lightborne doesn't only do music videos. It has produced commercial spots for Puma footwear, Salem cigarettes, the University of Kentucky women's basketball team and the Boy Scouts of America.

But a burgeoning area may be its work creating video spots for stores and public spaces - images of a company and its products that appear on TV screens, either to display a product or work as the visual equivalent of background music. This work has led to collaborations with broker E-Trade and the Hard Rock Cafe, among others.

Steve Kaufman, the editor of Cincinnati-based Visual Merchandising and Store Design (VM+SD) magazine, a trade publication for retail designers and store display professionals, said Lightborne is positioned to excel in that market.

"It's pretty new ... it's still kind of on the expensive side, and retailers aren't necessarily jumping on it," he said.

But "the quality is astounding. Lightborne is great; they do an outstanding job. But the quality in general from this sector is very sophisticated."

"Our real goal is to become a hub of motion media production - editorial graphics, effects, production," Nicholson said. "We want to be the go-to people to get creative problems solved."

E-mail jfenton@enquirer.com