Hattie Newman

0:19Thank thank you hello everyone I'm hatti I'm a set designer and put it on the first slide I make props and model that usually end up as images for magazines and adverts two examples here guardian and tfl so I'm going to talk to you tonight about one project in particular but I thought I better give you a quick background of me and my work that isn't me.

0:51But that's kind of what I was I started to make things as soon as I discovered Lego and as a seven-year-old I thought anthia Turner just had the best job in the world teaching the nation how to make Tracy island of the Thunderbirds to the nation. And I thought yeah making making things would be a cool job. And I'm lucky enough to be doing just that today.

1:22So I I grew up in the countryside and I used to make drawings like this I used to F sketchbooks full of towns and cities and maps and I always wanted to live in a town and I think that's kind of where my obsession of drawing and making towns comes from years later I studied illustration and started making towns and now I continue to make towns I like towns okay. So so yeah I've got a studio up the road and I I I make other things as well but for some reason well this subject just keeps to keeps following me and yeah.

2:12So I set up my scenes in a photography studio and I work with lots of different photographers to capture them.

2:21So they're essentially like 3D illustrations I'm I'm commissioned to kind of convey a message if whether it's like illustrating an editorial or you know an advert for something or or advertising a product so these just some examples of those and yeah and sometimes I'm asked to make the move which is fun and I'm definitely doing more of that as kind of time goes by and getting more into like stop motion animation I'm repped by blink Arts so I'm surrounded by lots of directors of moving image and yeah it's fun to be working on more animation projects as you can tell I love paper as well as towns and so a lot of my work is made from paper but also if you look closely there is some poly iring and wood these houses are actually made from wood and oh this was a a fun one for the Olympic Park to kind of explain the space I was asked to create a 3D map of the park which is now used for the visitors and here.

3:39I am setting it up in a photography studio with Anna the photographer up the ladder trying to trying to picture it. So yeah.

3:50So that's a quick background and this is the project I want to be talking about I was was approached by Canon and their ad agenty or their agency imagination Canon were hosting a an exhibition in Paris to kind of celebrate all of their products and they needed something in the room to for people to like pick up the Canon cameras and photograph so basically like a fun kind of shooting subject so their brief to me in a nutshell was make an intricate colorful paper city inspired by architecture from around the world.

4:36Basically the ultimate town I thought this would be a fun job. And it was so yeah.

4:42So I got started but I mean where do you start it was it was quite tough just to edit down buildings that I wanted to make and I didn't have that much time.

4:52So I couldn't kind of go around the world getting inspired I had to just take a quick trip through Google but the client also gave me some buildings that they wanted to feature like the Eiffel Tower because we were in because it was going to happen in Paris so the space they gave me was about 3 MERS by 3 m which was a bit daunting to begin with so in my studio I just kind of mapped out the space and just put those of boxes in it just to see how big all the buildings were going to be and how many I could fit in and so that's a picture of that.

5:31But it was very helpful it gave me an idea of what I wanted and then.

5:36I made this bird's eye view plan of everything I wanted to make and how big they were going to be it was quite useful kind of during the process so I could remind myself how many trees actually were going to fill that like each little space and I made a schedule did some pretty terrible drawings and I got some lovely assistants in to help me to have which there taking a picture stop soorry yeah. So got started I had like three weeks and my studio became a hive of activity like a factory of making things.

6:26And it was quite fun just trying to like simplify all the kind of detailed and intricate buildings that we'd chosen to to make here's me making the duo Florence of Florence but I used the computer to help me make templates so this was for the Dome of that Cathedral I think I made like four different versions before I was happy with the shape there was quite a lot of trial and error goes on when I'm making things. And some of the the bigger skyscrapers actually have solid kind of quite strong structures that I got laser cut in perspects and then we covered them in paper which definitely speeds things up but generally I like everything to be hand cut I think kind of imperfections and things like that just add some personality to everything. And I'm much more I enjoy working with assistants more than I do machines so and here's me making the Bristol suspension bridge which is quite sentimental to me because I studied in Bristol I'm sure Brunell would be flattered that I chose him probably not anyway.

7:46So yeah after a few weeks we had to pack it all up that probably took about a day and sent it over to Paris in a van luckily it all survived and it was waiting for me when I got there. And I was given this space a specially built plinth to to put the city on made friends with the builders who were setting up the exhibition you know Kindred Spirits they were they were building I was building although they kept stealing our ladder which was a bit annoying um but yeah it was really fun and here.

8:24I am setting up some of the finished buildings and doing the finishing touches and a picture of me at 2 in the morning it finished yeah the builders were long gone by that point but you know. I had to get it perfect yeah.

8:45So the next day suddenly the the exhibition Hall was full of people photographing the city from every angle bit like some kind of celebrity was a little bit nerve-racked work but seemed to be a success and yeah. So my 3 met by 3 met space didn't feel quite so big when I took a step back it's quite small. Actually but but it went well so so after the exhibition I I brought all the models back to London. And I really wanted to just capture like document them.

9:25So I got my friend Sun Lee who's a brilliant photographer to help me capture them in some lovely images and I'm going to show you a few of my faves top of the pops some colorful houses of Brazil that's the Bank of China in Hong Kong a Malaysian bugus house an American Farmhouse and a Japanese and Turkish temples and that's there's the Eiffel Tower the Florence bomo and a street of houses from Amsterdam an azc Temple and the kryler building yeah I thought it was I thought it would be fun to to add some more textures to the image so I brought in some dry ice and made some clouds and things. And some smoke for the Log Cabin a Russian Cathedral a windmill and here they all are together one happy family yeah.

10:30So that was the end of a really fun project but my next challenge was to to find somewhere to put them all because my studio is not very big and I don't have space to store them. So instead of getting rid of them they are actually on sale now in my shop on my website you can buy the original models and prints from that series and it's all in Aid of the it war war child and that's the end of my talk thank you very much for [Applause]

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