M – Morris Highlights The Quality Of Manual Creation

A homage to the work of William Morris’s floral designs and illustrations of the 19th Century.

Here, the real-time growth of flowers is used to form a modern illuminated letter, highlighting the slower quality of manual creation. Morris used illuminated letters in his own publications as a rebellion against the uniformity of the new industrial world. Inspiration for the flower species used came directly from Morris’s own floral illustrations, which were often influenced by the idea of the ‘English cottage garden’. This gives the film a Summertime feeling which is added to by the light continually moving around the structure until it reaches its final position, reflecting the sun’s movements throughout the day.

Optical Arts is a creative studio based in London. With an experimental approach and a collective spirit, we explore new ways to tell visual stories, applying innovative techniques to live-action, digital, and print.

Close-up of a white cup-shaped flower with a yellow center hanging from a green stem.
Two slender green stems cross and curl together against a pale gray background.
Green vines spiral around a dark upright support beside pale angular structural bars.
A deep red ruffled flower with a green center opens among thin stems and leaves.
A purple flower with curled petals and a pale yellow center fills a close-up composition.
A pink-purple flower blooms among thin vines, leaves and smaller pale flowers against gray.
Flowers and green vines cover a thin geometric framework arranged as an ornamental letter against gray.

INFORMATION

Creative Direction & Production: Optical Arts
Direction: Joe Jackson
Editor: Matt Cronin
Audio: Sonjay Prabhakar
2D Supervisor: Miguel Wratten
CG Supervisor: Fabrice Le Nezet
3D Artists: Ollie Harris, Alexa Sirbu, Lukas Vojir
Colourist: Martin Pryor
Typeface: Aspect by Jeremy Tankhard

All images with courtesy of Optical Arts

https://opticalarts.studio

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