As part of a team I was asked by Unilever to help promote their brand Surf to the South African market. As I am South African myself I was able to creatively guide the group. Storytelling is still a major element of South African culture and our proposal manifested itself as a short animated film, “Elizabeth’s Apron”, and supporting “The Art Of ” book showing our process.
The medium of storytelling is both powerful and alluring. We wanted to explore how a story can be told visually, whilst still carrying the morals or meanings of the original text.
To develop our own visual language we dissected a story told by Andre Brink, in his book Praying Mantis, as a form of literary research. The book revolves around the character of Cupido Cockroach, a San bushman tribesman, and his journey as a young slave of the early white European
settlers in Southern Africa to an evangelical priest, abandoned by the early white establishment who were responsible for converting him. The main themes of the book centre around the debate of losing ones culture and spiritual heritage. In terms of storytelling in the book we found that it is possible to use simple imaginative imagery to communicate subtle emotion and context.
This proved to be a valuable lesson; we discovered that one picture can indeed tell a thousand words, or at least that it is not necessary to tell the audience everything nor show them every detail. The magic of storytelling is that people are more than willing to suspend their disbelief, allowing a simple story with simple imagery to weave a beautiful and intricate tale.
Stories have the ability to speak to a community in a simple yet powerful way, translating Unilever’s core messages into a visual language that not only reinforces the brand values but also bolsters the values of the communities themselves.
The final animation for a live group project with Unilever completed at university.
With permission by Unilever.
In collaboration with Tim Higgins, Patrick Otley and Anjing Ma.
