FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

My main role on Fantastic Beasts, was to design the signage for the enormous 1920s New York street sets we built in Watford. This is a small selection of more than 400 different shop fascias, painted window graphics, hanging signs, 3D letters, illuminated signs and ghost graphics I designed during my time on the film. In addition I also created a huge number of ads, displays and signs within each of the windows, alongside posters in the streets and more. We re-used the sets on different occasions to look like different streets in New York so we needed a lot of signage. Foe example, in the photos above you can see the same building dressed as different streets - the Watchsmith became the Draper. I can't imagine ever getting the chance to undertake a signage project on this scale again. I'm so lucky to have been involved in such a fun and rewarding project with such a great team. Out on DVD now.

WINGS AND WATCHES

I illustrated these 'interactive inserts' and the patterned endpapers for a lovely Peter Pan book designed by Minalima. Such a fun project. (The crocodile hands on the clock were illustrated by another member of the Minalima team). The book, alongside fine art prints of the illustrations are available at the Minalima Store.

MACBETH TEASER TRAILER

I worked on this feature of Macbeth last year, and am happy to see a good view of some of my work in the teaser trailer. I designed the tile floor in the chapel, and the fresco on the walls that was then painted by our scenic artist. I watched the film last week at a screening for the crew and thought it was brilliant! Definitely one to watch on the big screen - out in cinemas on the 2nd October.

HAPPY 2015

THE IMITATION GAME

The book Christopher Morcom gives to the young Alan Turing.

The crossword booklet young Alan is doing.

Alan Turing set a crossword challenge to attract new recruits to work with him at Bletchley Park. I couldn’t quite believe it, but with the help of a very helpful newspaper archive, I managed to track down a copy of the newspaper with the actual crossword Turing wrote, half filled in by someone back in 1942. I created the advertisement at the top to help tell the story in the film.

Photo: Black Bear Pictures via The Guardian.

'Specials' in the cafe.

Enigma documents on the German submarine.

Notebook making.

'Intercepts' and 'decrypts'.

We tried to be as accurate as possible regarding the extremely complicated paperwork chain that was gone through by those working at Bletchley Park. Luckily I had the invaluable help of historian Joel Greenberg, author of a book on codebreaker Gordon Welchman who worked alongside Turing, who helped me learn about the processes they went through. These are recreations I made of original documents supplied by Bletchley Park (although the intercepted messages I wrote are all fictitious!).

Sketches and plans - Alan's desk at Bletchley Park.

Sketches and plans - Alan's house.

Star globe.

I drew lots of notes and sketches in Alan Turing’s ‘hand’ for the film. We were able to look at a lot of his original documents created after his time at Bletchley, which were both fascinating and mind-boggling. He was interested in so many areas from mathematics to morphogenesis to astronomy and lots more in between. The globe I made from a story in Andrew Hodges biography on Turing where he describes how as an adolescent, Turing trained himself to wake up at the same time each night, so he could map the position of the stars from his bedroom window.

Train tickets and luggage stickers.

Cigarette boxes.

Puzzle booklet read by the boy on the train.

Advertisements for the train station.

War-time posters.

The Imitation Game tells the story of Alan Turing, who worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War to break the German Enigma Code. These are some of the graphic props I designed for the film while working for Minalima. I’m proud to have worked on this film, not only because creating the graphics was very rewarding, but also because it’s a very important story to tell about Turing’s professional and personal life. See it on the big screen - out in cinemas now!

Images copyright Black Bear Pictures.

THE IMITATION GAME TRAILER

I watched The Imitation Game at a screening for the crew last weekend - it's brilliant! I worked on the graphic props for the film - drawings and book covers to bill boards, maps and matchboxes, and lots more in between. The film is about Alan Turing, who worked at Bletchley Park to break the German Enigma code, and is set predominantly during the Second World War with periods in the 1920s and 1950s. I'm really lucky to have worked on this, not only because I find these eras fantastic visually and great fun to research and design props for, but also because I think it's a really important story to tell about both his professional and personal life. Well worth seeing - out in cinemas 14th November.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS - THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER

Photo from the theme park via Dave Parfitt.

Window graphics for the 'Fountain of Fair Fortune' pub in Diagon Alley.

Window graphics.

Door graphics.

'Obscurus Books' hanging sign.

Barber's hanging sign.

The expansion of the Harry Potter Theme Park at Universal Studios in Orlando, and a brand new park in Japan opened their doors this summer. I’ve not visited the parks myself but from photos I’ve seen they look absolutely phenomenal - like you’re actually stepping into the wizarding world! I started working with Set Decorator Rosie Goodwin creating style guides for dressing the sets, and moved on to the signage for the Wizarding World with Minalima Design. Much of the amazing graphic signage for the shops and establishments was designed by Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima during the ten years they worked together on the Harry Potter films, after which they formed Minalima. The parks see establishments from the films and books alongside a number of new shops and signs, and I was lucky to be able to work on some of these. These are a couple of the hanging signs I designed for the park in Orlando, and a window graphic for the pub where you can treat yourself to a ‘Butter Beer’. Such a fun job!

Images copyright Universal Studios.