Michael K. Frith

thumb|300px|Michael photographing Miss Piggy
Michael Kingsbury Frith (born July 8, 1941) is the former Executive Vice President and Creative Director for Jim Henson Productions. His contributions to Muppet projects have been extensive and varied.
Frith began his career at Random House in 1963 as a children's book illustrator and editor. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Beginner Books series, the line of books created by Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss).
In 1971, when Random House began publishing Sesame Street books, Frith was named editor and art director of the Sesame series. He produced a series of five annual large-format Sesame Street Storybooks, and contributed artwork for four of them: The Sesame Street Storybook (1971), The Sesame Street 1, 2, 3 Storybook (1973), The Sesame Street ABC Storybook (1974), and Big Bird's Busy Book (1975).
During that time, Frith worked as a freelance designer for several Muppet projects; he supplied character sketches for The Muppet Musicians of Bremen and also helped redesign Mr. Snuffleupagus for Sesame Street.Jim Henson's Red Book entry, "12/1975 – Michael Frith joins us." Appreciating Frith's talents as a designer, Jim Henson brought him on board his creative team. One of Frith's first major assignments was designing the cast of The Land of Gortch sketches for Saturday Night Live.
Frith recalled his beginnings with the Muppets in The Saturday Evening Post (December 1980): 
Frith also described his collaboration with the builders: 
Frith joined Henson Associates full-time as Art Director in December of 1975. He was named Vice President in 1978, and Executive Vice President and Director of Creative Services in 1985.
In the 1980s, Frith played a key role in the creation of Fraggle Rock. As the series' conceptual designer, he was largely responsible for the overall look of the show, designing all of the main characters (and a vast number of recurring and incidental figures) as well as many of the series' locations. His illustrations adorned the series' original .
In 1996, Frith left Henson Productions to start a new company, Sirius Thinking Ltd., with John Sculley, Christopher Cerf, and Norman Stiles. Sirius is the multi-media children's education company that created Between the Lions, an award-winning educational puppet show on PBS, in 2000. Frith served as the executive producer, creative director, conceptual designer, and co-creator of the show. Additionally, with wife Kathryn Mullen, Frith is a co-founder of No Strings International, an organization which makes educational and preparedness puppet films for children around the world.
Previously, Cerf and Frith wrote the James Bond parody Alligator (1962) as "I*N FL*M*NG."
==Muppet/Henson credits==
;Design and Production Credits
*The Muppet Musicians of Bremen: Designed Leroy and Chickens; co-designed Catgut, Rover Joe, T.R. (all with Jim Henson)
*Saturday Night Live (The Land of Gortch): Designed Scred, Vazh, and Wisss; co-designed The Mighty Favog (with Jim Henson)
*The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence: Designed Gluttony, Envy, Avarice, and Anger
*The Muppet Show: Creative and design consultant
** Designed Floyd Pepper, Janice, The Swedish Chef, Fozzie Bear, Scooter, Beauregard, Uncle Deadly, Lips, Wayne, Paul Revere, Sopwith the Camel, Gaffer, Mrs. Appleby, Betsy Bird, Winny, Ballerina Pig, The Mutations, Trolls, Talking Houses, The Dodo, and more
** Co-designed Dr. Teeth (with Jim Henson and Bob Taylor), Angus McGonagle (with Bruce McNally), and The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (with Caroly Wilcox)
*Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas: Creative Consultant; designed Doc Bullfrog and others
*Sesame Street: Designed Barkley, Aristotle, and Mona Monster; helped re-design Mr. Snuffleupagus
*The Muppet Movie: Design consultant; designed Hardware Gonzo statuette
*A Sesame Street Mystery: The Case of the Missing Rara Avis: Designed Phineas T. Barnswallow, Inspector Fortescu Farquar, The Seedy Birds, and the New York City Department of Missing Birds
*The Great Muppet Caper: Design consultant
*Big Bird's Super Spectacular Totally Amateur Show: Designed Pinkie Monster
*Fraggle Rock: Conceptual designer
** Designed Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober, Red, Uncle Traveling Matt, Sprocket, Junior Gorg, Marjory the Trash Heap, Philo and Gunge, Cotterpin and Doozers, Cantus, Murray, Brio, Balsam, Brool, Mudwell the Mudbunny, Begoony, Wander McMooch, Genie, The Odd Old Man, Inkspots, and many others
** Concept art for locations including Fraggle Rock, Doc's Workshop, the Gorgs' Castle and Garden, and the Doozer Dome
*Rocky Mountain Holiday: Designed The Giant Man-Eating Chicken
*Around the World: Design of new Sesame Street Live Muppets
*The Muppets Take Manhattan: Design consultant; designed the Muppet Babies
*Muppet Babies: Creative consultant and executive producer
*Follow That Bird: New character designer; designed Miss Finch, Daddy Dodo, and Mommy Dodo
*Little Muppet Monsters: Creative producer; designed Tug Monster, Molly Monster, Boo Monster, for "Baby Monster" and others
*Puppetman: Muppet production designer
*Inner Tube: Character design
*A Muppet Family Christmas: Designed The Snowman
*Big Bird and the ABCs: Designed Tee Hee
*Play-Along Video series: Designed Kai-Lee
*Free to Be... a Family: Muppet segment producer
*The Jim Henson Hour: Design consultant; designed Beard, Lindbergh, and Ubu; co-designed Chip (with John Stephenson)
*Dog City (special): Muppet design consultant
*Muppet*Vision 3D: Creative consultant
*The Muppet Christmas Carol: Design consultant; designed The Ghost of Christmas Present
*Jim Henson's Dog City: Executive producer
*The Secret Life of Toys: Designed Humble Gary
*Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree: Executive producer
*Muppet Treasure Island: Design consultant; designed Clueless Morgan, Mad Monty, and Blind Pew
*The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss: Executive producer
;Books
*The Sesame Street Storybook: Illustrator of "Grover Above and Below," "Cookie Monster Up and Down," "Grover Near and Far," two-page illustration for the book's endpapers
*The Sesame Street 1, 2, 3 Storybook: Cover art
*The Perils of Penelope: Illustrator
*The Sesame Street ABC Storybook: Illustrator of front and back covers, "Bert and the Beanstalk," "The Count Inks an I," "Oscar's Favorite N Word," "The Story of Pete the Pirate"
*Big Bird's Busy Book: Co-author, co-illustrator
*The Art of the Muppets: Editorial director
*Miss Piggy's Guide to Life: Art directeur
*Find Your Way to Muppet Treasure Island: Illustrator
;Calendars
* The Sesame Street 1974 Activity Calendar: Art director
* The Sesame Street Family Album: Illustrator
* Miss Piggy Calendars: Art director
;Albums
*The Muppet Show: Album design
*The Muppet Movie: Cover illustration
*A Christmas Together: Art direction and illustrations
*Miss Piggy's Aerobique Exercise Workout Album: Art direction
*Music and Magic: Poster illustration
;Other merchandise
* Artwork for Sesame Street dinnerware (Gorham)
* Designed the Muppet tea set
* Artwork for Muppet placemats (Sigma)
* Muppet Magazine: Creative consultant
* Designed The Spirit of the Telephone
* Welcome Aboard: Art director
;Miscellaneous
* The Jim Henson Company Christmas cards: , , , 
* Jim Henson Productions Company Brochure 1993: designed 
* Muppet Treasure Island Cast Crew Pewter Tankard
==See also==
*Michael K. Frith drawings
==Sources==
==External links==
*IMDb
*Sirius Thinking Ltd. official site
*Between the Lions official site (archived)
*No Strings International official site
*YouTube interview - Creating Characters - Michael K Frith (part 1), (part 2)
*"The Man with the Golden Touch," profile of Frith from The Royal Gazette
__NOWYSIWYG__
Category:Designers
Category:Illustrators
Category:Producers