The Brief

The Guardian Labs and Tourism Norther Ireland needed to create a series of films that would help drive tourists back to Northern Ireland after the pandemic had decimated the travel industry. They had managed to secure two leading Northern Irish TV personalities, in Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Eamonn Holmes to help bring these films to life.

The Solution

I was asked to direct the animation for this collaboration between The Guardian Labs and Tourism Northern Ireland. With fantastic talent being filmed, we had to ensure our animation lived up to the performances. I was able to collaborate with talented Illustrator Sean McLeod and amazing animator Adrien Kulig who were able to create some truly stunning illustrations.

Wanting to create a truly authentic story, we chose to develop a hand drawn style, with a colourful palette, that gave us the freedom to create fun and quirky illustrations, but also leverage the footage we had, and carve unique stories into these shots.

Working along side the director of the spot, Archie Johnston Stewart, we were able to develop the two videos in a short turn around, enabled by meticulous pre planning from our producer Imogen Venn.

In the end, we created two films that told genuine story's about Northern Ireland, and the fantastic places you can visit there.