Growing up, animator, illustrator, and director Laurie Rowan was immersed in art; his mother being an artist and his father having introduced him to surreal, expressive literature and music.
“Creativity was really valued in our household and I always felt the arts were a viable career choice,” he told Lecture in Progress. “I was a late bloomer in school and art was the only thing I really excelled at, so I always felt it was central to my identity and sense of personal worth.”
Now based on the South Coast of England, his artistic career has included leading campaigns for clients such as BBC, Channel 4, Droga5, Disney and Google; and his work has achieved numerous accolades including a Children’s Bafta win and Lovie Award.
“I create children’s content for the most part,” he says. “The bulk of my work is around game design – making landscapes, characters, rigging and animating them and working with an art director and development team to make it all work. I also do linear animation work, or what’s termed, ‘explainer videos’, and sometimes I’m called upon to create sets of short looping gif animations for Facebook sticker sets to promote the release of a film or TV show.”
His animations, quirky, funny, if a bit wonky, have also drawn the attention of more than 26k followers on Instagram. “The most satisfying part of my job is creating something tangible – experimenting with ideas, overcoming technical constraints and ending up with something fun that is seen and used by people.”
Here are some of our favorite characters by him.
