CHUCK WHITE  Founder, President

Chuck White is known for his leadership in the creative industry. Graduating from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh at the top of his class, he soon recognized that his artistic background combined with his natural sales ability, gave him an edge in the market.  Everywhere Chuck was employed, his passion for artistry and innovation made him a top producer and a respected artists’ representative. 

In 1996, Chuck and his friend, retouching artist, Dean Armstrong, created a new studio model. Nothing about images has been the same since. Chuck remembers doing rubdowns and ordering type overnight. He recalls joining the first print effects company in Michigan and working on the first Paintbox in Detroit. He enjoys the credit for leading the single biggest new car launch project in Detroit studio history and renaming and branding a $2 billion company. He worked with Crispin Porter on the first VW configurator in history and brought his team on board with Saatchi-Saatchi LA to create all of the web-assets for Toyota’s new FJ Cruiser. 

Whenever something new and exciting is happening, Chuck is right in the middle of it, contributing innovative ideas and putting his creative team front and center. He is often called into high-level agency meetings where processes, concepts, or new product launches are being created. Everyone recognizes that Chuck is a visionary who resides outside of the box. Whatever needs to be done for a client, he delivers.

DEAN ARMSTRONG  Founder, Vice President

What made Dean Armstrong a great artist? Perhaps it was his mother’s painting influence or his education at Center for Creative Studies or maybe, it just came natural. Regardless of the source, his talent was so obvious to a local studio that they recruited him out of college early to begin his career. He learned retouching in an apprenticeship with the industry’s best – bleach and dye, hands-on, time-intensive, manual and airbrush retouching. Yes, this was before computers.

When new technology appeared on the horizon, Dean was young and fresh and willing to embrace change. He moved to a firm that had one of only two of the city’s print work computer systems. In Dean’s opinion, the PCs of the time required an engineer’s mind; he enjoyed stretching his mind to make art with these tools. Early Macs arrived, offering more artistic control. Paintbox and Chromacom came to town, and Dean joined Chuck at Pelikan Pictures. After that, the rest is creative history.

Dean’s mission is to make art invisible. Now, with CGI, Dean feels that it’s truly amazing to see what the studio creates. The agencies and photographers that Dean has worked for have won numerous prestigious awards. Dean is also recognized in the industry for developing new and unique styles of art, often times setting the tone for new advertising campaigns. As an artistic master, both clients and artists frequent his office, excited by the possibilities they see on his screen. The people of Armstrong White and their industry clients agree, Dean is “the guy.”

KATHERINE ABBOUD  Partner, Chief Operating Officer

The client’s perspective is one that Katherine Abboud understands well. She comes from an advertising background, where she served most recently as Senior Partner, Director of Creative Services for JWT Detroit. She began in production management at McCann-Erickson, LA, and worked at TBWA Chiat/Day LA, and JWT Chicago. Some of the world’s best-known brands, including Ford, Coca Cola, Nissan, Infiniti, Kraft, DaimlerChrysler, and Toyota define Katherine’s resume. At JWT Detroit, she managed seven departments, more than 100 people, and a $300 million production budget for Ford Motor Company. Sourcing the Detroit creative community, Katherine found what she needed in her working relationship with Chuck White and Dean Armstrong. The connection was made.

Armstrong White gladly looks at absolutely everything in new ways. So, when Katherine decided to start a consulting business, she naturally brought her point-of-view to Armstrong White. The tables turned and the former client became a consultant, helping the studio develop their products, services, processes, sales strategies, and new business pitches. In 2006, she joined the firm as a partner.

Katherine understands how the studio’s concepts and content can be used in so many pre-market activities, and believes the advertising business is becoming more and more asset-driven. She sees the strategic opportunity, and helps others see it, too.

JOHN WILLETTE  Partner, Director of CGI

Back in the mid 1980s, John Willette read CAD data and used it for computer graphics, depicting only parts, not a whole vehicle. At Traveling Pictures in the 1990s, which he co-founded and grew from one workstation to a 30-computer shop, John created computer graphics and visual effects for Hollywood films including “What Lies Beneath” and “Castaway.” Joining Armstrong White, he went to work on forward-thinking, visionary endeavors like the first digital garage which used CAD data and created a fleet of assets. It was typical of Armstrong White and John, leaping into the next wave of technology and expecting it to lead somewhere - which it usually does - quickly. John’s reputation in the CGI arena is such that he has been flown to Japan on two different occasions by West Coast agencies to lend his expertise to their projects. When anyone, at any agency, has a CGI quandary, they come to John at Armstrong White.

In addition, John helped shoot high-dynamic range imagery to capture all the light the human eye could distinguish and apply it to CAD data. He created a pipeline to handle extremely heavy, complex data sets. The high-res data that makes print look photorealistic can now handle motion. Then John helped move away from traditional CGI processes into pre-visualization, a hardware/software advance that reads the CAD data set and generates imagery. This process is shorter and more interactive, creating a product which provides instant gratification to artists and clients. Pullout digital environments followed.

Now, under John’s leadership, Armstrong White offers a management process and system that help agencies keep info workable and ready to show. As John sees it, technology is an art form in itself.