Creating an illustrated animation for Nyetimber, based on loose and inky fashion-style illustrations.
This was a special project to be involved with. I was commissioned by branding agency Deep to work on a series of illustrations for Nyetimber, one of the world’s finest sparkling wine producers. The agency especially wanted to bring the brand’s history to life in an illustrated animation for Nyetimber and my loose, inky style of fashion illustration was deemed ideal for this luxury lifestyle brand.
Having spent time at the Nyetimber estate in the rural south of England on a recce trip, I was immersed in the abundant history behind the Nyetimber story. I explored the wonderful estate, manor house and West Sussex vineyards, tasting the wine (of course), and learning about the various recommended pairings. This is where my inspiration for the drawings came from; understanding the unique positioning of Nyetimber and their sparkling wines and drawing everything back to the brand’s proud British heritage.
On a very blustery and wet day back in March 2019, Nyetimber’s Brand Ambassador Steffan Griffith walked me around the estate and vineyards. We shared a meal as he talked me through the delicious wines they produce. You can hear his voiceover on the final video.
How I did it
I’ve created a fair bit of work for Nyetimber; subtle linear still-life drawings as backgrounds for their online store products, and a lifestyle-orientated, loose & inky scenarios for each food/wine pairings. These were subtly-animated and can be found throughout their website.
It was felt that the latter style would be perfect to create this fully illustrated animation for Nyetimber, alongside animator Andrew Morgan, to bring the brand’s history to life.
Working to a script based on the brand’s story, I used my visit and research photographs as starting points to sketch ideas, eventually creating a series of ink drawings on the iPad Pro using Adobe Fresco & Photoshop. For each illustration, I made hundreds of layers of subtle marks, bold-dark lines and ink fills, creating separate elements that Andrew could animate individually to stunning effect.
Deep’s Art Director – Matthew Shelly provided some creative feedback during the journey from creative brief to final review by the client. It was really interesting to bring my fashion illustration style of drawing to this luxury lifestyle sector. Most of my work is figurative, and so to create landscapes and still-life illustrations was a fun way to take my work in a different direction.
If you would like to see more of my work in this style, click here.
