The Creators
Curio was founded by Cesare Asaro and Kirstie Shepherd to take the particular flair for nostalgic design they use in entertainment world-building as Curio & Co. and put it to use helping international companies share their stories and bring their own ideas to life.
Cesare Asaro
THE artist
co-founder
ILLUSTRATING THE FANTASTIC
Designer and illustrator Cesare Asaro has one foot in Europe and one in the US. He has worked on both continents in the animation industry on projects like Three Delivery for the Animation Collective, Sesame Street’s stop-motion Bert and Ernie’s Great Adventures, and Disney’s Princess and the Frog.
He has also worked as a design consultant for large organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency at the United Nations and Benetton Megastores, as well as managed a freelance business as a storyboard artist with projects for various clients in the advertising industry.
Since 2010 he has helped create the fictional worlds of Curio & Co., bringing an alternate history to life. This includes the Eisner-nominated Finding Frank and His Friend and the Gadabout Time Machine User’s Manual, recently optioned to Hollywood for a feature film. Cesare relies on his background in fine art to create believable facsimiles of period-specific illustrations – from pencil to digital originals – to recreate the past and provide a nostalgic trip down memory lane.
Kirstie Shepherd
The Author
co-founder
PUTTING WHIMSY INTO WORDS
Storytelling has always been a part of Kirstie Shepherd’s life. She grew up in California, in a family where stories were told as a means of sharing family histories, entertainment, and of settling disputes over household chores. She won her first award for storytelling at the age of five.
Kirstie is a published author with experience writing for comic books, magazines, and advertising campaigns in Europe and the United States. She has created communication projects that lift the story off the page and bring it to life, including writing and developing shows for groups of 120 schoolchildren aged 5-15, and serving as a spokesperson in the US national and Los Angeles metropolitan area radio and TV broadcasting.
Her work builds imaginary worlds, producing entertainment collectibles from these worlds. The products draw on her imaginative storytelling abilities, both on and off the page, to create a world that is fantastic, yet believable. From settings and characters to storylines and props – her work reveals an extraordinary world that’s lurking just under the surface of our own humdrum lives.
STAFF & Associates
THE RIGHT TEAM FOR YOUR PROJECT
At Curio we understand that every project is different and that you need the right collaborators to be successful. That’s why we work with a network of experts skilled in a variety of fields to find the solution you need. Get in touch with us and we’ll put together the right team for your project.
