Syncronos Design
- Open roles
- 0
- Founded
- 1988
- Employees
- 1-10
- Offices
- 1
About Syncronos Design
Syncronos Design is an independent design and film production studio combining animation, visual effects and documentary filmmaking with sustainable technology and environmental education. Based in New Mexico, the company develops visual media that explain ecological living, green building and energy technologies. Its work spans film, interactive educational software, museum installations and multimedia publishing.
Founded in 1988 by Ted Owens and Rick Perkins, the business began in Hermosa Beach, California, with an office and machine shop supporting appropriate-technology design and early film work. Its activities included designing and manufacturing cylindrical solar cooking ovens. The company relocated to Corrales, New Mexico, in 1990, where its work developed around the region’s solar resources and earthen building traditions.
Film, animation and environmental storytelling
The studio’s capabilities include 2D and 3D animation, visual effects, documentary direction, cinematography and post-production. It also works with high-definition, time-lapse and macro cinematography, architectural visualization, sustainable design consulting and interactive exhibit design. These disciplines support projects for environmental education, documentary film, residential green building and educational exhibitions.
A central production is Building With Awareness: The Construction of a Hybrid Home, released in 2006. The project combines a five-hour educational documentary with a 152-page architectural guidebook, documenting construction methods involving solar power, straw bales and adobe. Its multimedia format brings together practical building information and visual explanations of sustainable home design.
The company also collaborated with You-Betcha Interactive on The Home Gene-Splicing Kit, a children’s digital photography manipulation CD-ROM released in 1999. Its broader work includes interactive environmental exhibits for the California Museum of Science and Industry.
Syncronos continues to develop educational media and an original feature-length environmental animated project exploring relationships between energy technologies and ecological sustainability. Across these formats, its practice connects technical design with filmmaking and accessible visual explanation.
More about Syncronos Design
Leadership and backgrounds
- Ted Owens is president, director and cinematographer. Aaron Barreras serves as VFX supervisor and lead animator, and Anneliese Varaldiev is a co-producer and videographer. Co-founder Rick Perkins is identified as a previous co-owner.
- Owens holds a BFA from Art Center College of Design and contributed to the 1984 computer-generated IMAX film The Magic Egg before the studio was founded. Perkins studied television and film production at the University of Southern California and brought hardware effects and mechanical engineering expertise.
Production environment
The studio operates from a facility described as 100% solar-powered. In Corrales, Owens designed and built a hybrid home combining straw-bale construction, adobe thermal mass walls, passive solar design and rooftop photovoltaic power.
Recognition
The Home Gene-Splicing Kit, produced with You-Betcha Interactive, received the "Best Entertainment Software of the Year" award at the 1999 NewMedia Invision Awards.
Additional background
- The name "Syncronos" combines "sync," meaning in tune with, and "chronos," meaning time.
- The report identifies Owens as serving on the boards of the Dr. Seuss Foundation and Geisel-Seuss Enterprises.
Notable credits
3 creditsOffices
Current and former locations of Syncronos Design
- 4638 Corrales Road, Corrales, NM 87048, USACorrales, New Mexico, United States
Corrales office
HeadquartersOpened 1990
Solar-powered studio and overall production headquarters following the company's 1990 relocation from California.
- Hermosa Beach, California, United States
Hermosa Beach office
Former officeOpened 1988 · Closed 1990
Original office and small machine shop used for solar oven engineering and early film work; closed following the relocation to Corrales.
Open roles
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