Interiors and Illustration combined...Container Plus

Container Plus has obviously been one of my main influences throughout my past few projects because of their black and white drawings and interesting set designs, so by now i pretty much know their quirky website inside and out! As part of a VW Fox project, CP designed 4 rooms for Copenhagen's Creative lifestyle hotel which you can see in the below images. Even when i was concentrating on a past project which had nothing to do with room design, i'd keep referring back to these images because they really appealed to me and i am glad that i can use them in my FMP as one of my influences. Their collaged collaborations of photographs and ink drawing are very three-dimensional in that they “grow” across floors and walls like multi-dimensional fairy tales that have escaped from their books. Container have published in magazines such as Elle and The Face and their first interior designs were for the London department store Selfridges.


For the launch of the new Volkswagen Fox 21, international artists from the fields of graphic design, urban art and illustration turned Hotel Fox in central Copenhagen, into the world’s most exciting and creative lifestyle hotel. It contains 61 rooms, 21 artists and 1000 ideas and each room is an individual piece of art - from wacky comical styles to strict graphic design, from fantastic street art and Japanese Manga to simply spaced out fantasies. You can find flowers, fairytales, friendly monsters, dreaming creatures, secrets vaults....the list goes on. Here is the link to Hotel Fox's website for you to take a furthur look: www.hotelfox.dk






The image of the red room is called 'Clubs - The Secret Palace'. CP came up with a royal theme for their four rooms “to emphasise the feeling of being special that one gets when one stays in a hotel.” They also based their rooms on the four suites in a pack of cards. Room 309 is clubs: “FOXy deep red paints and fabrics mixed with a dark and sultry palette makes this a seductive and sophisticated room. It is designed to intoxicate and relax – like a nightclub with beautiful sexy princess women, party-divas, and men who look like clowns.”

'Creating a Sense of Place'...final major project ideas

For my Final Major Project, my idea is based around themed rooms and a brief that i found online for an award winning hostel called Piccadily Backpackers. It contains 700 bedrooms located in Piccadily Circus, providing accomodation for budget travellers from all over the world. It's called 'Project: Hostel Art' which allows illustrators and designers to expose and allow upcoming illustrators the opportunity to display their works inside a young, youthful environment that accomodates travellers from around the world. Basically, the canvas will be in the format of an entire room and the project has no boundaries meaning that us illustrators are free to design the room however we like, keeping in mind that it will also be lived in. You can portray a message, an environment, a dream....or in my case, a fairytale which is exactly what i'm going to do.

It took me forever to think of an exciting idea for my FMP but when i stayed at a beautiful hotel in the Lakes with my boyfriend last year called Gilpin Lodge, i knew exactly what i wanted to base it on. Here is the link to Gilpin Lodge's website so please take a look: www.gilpinlodge.co.uk

Being one of Britain's best small country hotels, Gilpin Lodge is a charming Lakeland Home in the breathtaking surroundings of the Lake District. I particularly liked it because each room has its own individual style and fine attention to detail, making it different to any hotel i'd seen before. I have sent Barney, the owner of Gilpin Lodge, an email to ask for some more in depth information on each room and what the inspiration behind each room was so i will post his reply on my blog.

Oliver Jeffers animation

As you know from my previous posts, I am a huge fan of Oliver Jeffers and I luckily managed to find a 25-minute CG-animated adaptation of his second picture book Lost and Found which won the TV Special Award at Annecy a couple of days ago. Apparently it was shown over here in the UK over Christmas but this is the first I’d heard of it.



Although i think they have done a good job of adapting it into a 3D animation, i also think it is a shame that it isn't 2D because of Oliver's incredibly stylised illustrations. I do think it will become very popular and will set standards for children's animations.

Interview with Sue Reddish

I checked my emails on New Years Day and was really chuffed to find a nice, detailed reply from Sue Reddish, an animator who i got talking to at my boyfiend's work functions. She asked me what I studied at college and the sort of things i was into and she was thrilled when i told her about my recent animation project for the negotiated project. She said she mainly goes round local schools at the moment teaching people how to use I-stop Motion and she said i'm very welcome to accompany her any time just for a bit of experience and she even offered to set me a brief which i may take her up on. Here is her response:


Hi Katy

Great to meet you the other night, I'm really happy to answer your questions, sorry it taken me a while to get back to you - just your average christmas madness! I'll try and give you brief bullet point answers here but if you need more information and your deadline allows, I'd be happy to talk further with you. You could give me a ring on 07********* in the new year and we can have a chat but in the meantime here is my waffley answers..............feel free to ignore if they dont make any sense


1. What first triggered a passion for creating I-stop animations?

The passion came from practicality! I am a theatre director by profession and have worked for many years with various groups and actors etc. Increasingly it was getting harder and harder to get community groups and young people to commit to the amount of rehearsal time it takes to create quality work and of course theatre is by nature ephemeral. I wanted to continue to create work using narrative techniques, that enabled people to voice their own ideas and aspirations, without them having to commit to a long rehearsal period. Animation allowed me to do this, it uses all the same storytelling techniques, 'real peoples' voices & you can work on in episodically. And of course as a digital 'product' it has a much longer shelf life and people can distribute their own work. I'm self taught and have made alot of mistakes!

2. Who would you consider your biggest influence and why?

Politically & artisically - Dorothy Heathcote, Joan LIttlewood, Théâtre de Complicit, Julie Taymor, Handspring Puppet company, Kate rusby the list could go on and on.......
Specifically animation wise - Jan Svankmajer, Quay brothers, Terry Gilliam

the list could go on for ever, but the why is easy - all these artists and companies balance craft and storytelling and in doing so present a unique view of the world

3. what qualities do prospective clients look for in a candidate?

I am mainly commissioned through various agencies , currently Curious Minds & CUE. they look for ability to engage people in the artistic process, facilitating them to create original work in their own voice to create a more diverse cultural product. obviously as well as the artistic skills and people skills , you also need a level of professionalism. Its relatively easy to get one job, but if you get more work from them, that speaks volumes. I always look on peoples CV's if they've been invited back on a job, same with actors.
Check out their websites www.curiousminds.org.uk & www.ioe.mmu.ac.uk/cue/

and finally...!

4. What do you find most challenging about teaching animation to children?

Where do I start! Actually the most challenging element is still time - children can make brilliant work quite quickly, but then to improve they need to do it again and again and yet sometimes they feel that having done it once, they dont have to do it again! And the other main issue or challenge is the crappy state of technology in most schools. God save me from school computers!

Hope this is useful,
dont hesitate to get back to me if you need more

until then, hope you both have a good christmas and new year

regards Sue