History

 

Hizwerks Productions was founded in 2000 by Ken Hale and was originally called Hale Productions. Born in a small town in western Pennsylvania, Ken Hale discovered a love for art at the age of 4. At the age of 12, Ken was noticed by his art teacher, mentor and friend, Fred Corle, who pushed Ken to constantly refine his talent. By his senior year of high school, Ken was spending 4 classes a day in the art room producing pieces, learning techniques and refining his skills.

 

After High school, Ken pursued his BFA in Animation from Edinboro University, where he studied alongside other great Edinboro Graduates like Dave Filoni. After college, Ken felt a call into ministry and served for several years as a youth minister on the North Side of Pittsburgh. During this time he met his wife Christine. They were married in 2001.

 

After serving in youth ministry for several years, Ken decided to pursue endeavers that made use of his degree in animation. Through the help of his friend Ryan Doak, he began to learn programs like Macromedia Flash and Authorware. This was accomplished by building a computer out of spare parts and loading demo versions of the software.

 

After several months and help from Ryan, Ken was able to land his first contractor position with Ingersoll-Rand in Shippensburg, PA. Ken spent one year with Ingersoll-Rand and developed several marketing materials for mulitiple product lines. After his first year, Ingersoll-Rand decided to retain him as a contractor rather than hire him on full-time. He produced product over views, training videos, and machine assembly and function animations for the road machinery, material handling, and light compaction product lines.

 

As Ken Hale continued his work with Ingersoll-Rand, he began to pursue work with other clients. Over the years, Ken has worked on projects for Rite Aid, Advanced Education Services, Hosanna House, New Hope Church, North Park Church, Edunations, The University of Pittsburgh, Manchester Bidwell Corporation, Kitchen of Grace, as well as worked with other production companies such as Digital Matrix Studio and Take One Productions.

 

In addition to his skills as a multimedia producer, Ken is an accomplished artist. Ken enjoys many mediums, but has mostly enjoyed working with pastels and charcoal. He has been a RAW Artist since 2013 and was a semi-finalist in Pittsburgh in 2013 as a visual artist. Ken focuses his work on photo-realistic portraiture and has completed several pieces over the years, both personal and comissioned. His work can be seen on the RAW Artist website.