The story
The company was founded in 1979 by Gerry Anderson alumni Ken Turner and David Mitton, and produced television commercials as well as miniature effects for films and TV shows. Turner left the company in 1979, to be replaced by American-born director and producer Robert D. Cardona.
The production logo of Clearwater Features was a pink Buick Y-Job car parked at a film studio with palm trees, based on Clearwater, Florida, and it appeared on the ending of half the stories of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends from series 1 and 2 (the other half ending with a nameboard gallery). It also appeared on a flag of a barge in the Tugs episode "4th of July".
The company shut down on the last day of 1990 because of Tugs' conclusion. When the studio was closed down, Mitton became part of The Britt Allcroft Company and Cardona went off to live in Canada. Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends remained in production by The Britt Allcroft Company (later Gullane Entertainment) from 1984 until 2003, when HIT Entertainment took over.
From Wikipedia’s article on Clearwater Features, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4