Alex Ruhl chatting with Siddhi Trivedi on stage at the TEDxLeicester 2019 event at The Y Theatre.
Photography by: Charlotte Lu
Getting involved with TEDxLeicester!
Last summer we were contacted by Siddhi to ask if we would be interested in helping with Fast Forward, the upcoming TEDxLeicester event to be held at The Y Theatre that September.
TEDx is an independently organised, local version of the familiar TED events, where performances and talks can be shared with the community. The latest TEDx Leicester event would feature talks from academics, entrepreneurs and thought leaders alongside performances by local musicians and poets, all centred around the concept of Fast Forward, an open invitation for contributors to look to the future and consider where we go from here.
Siddhi was looking to collaborate with local creatives who were eager to help make the upcoming event a success. The event was being managed by our Phoenix neighbour, Vijay Kumar Maru, and our long-time collaborators Orange Fox Studios had signed up to handle shooting the event, so it was almost inevitable that we would get involved.
Our first introduction to the inner workings of TEDx took place in a family-friendly pub garden on a sunny afternoon in Leicester. The team were a vibrant mix of talented locals with a wide range of expertise. Their enthusiasm for the project was infectious and we were soon brainstorming ideas about what we as animators could bring to the table.
Animated Contribution!
We decided that it would be fun to create an animated version of each of the speakers and performers that would appear at the event. These could be used to introduce each speaker as they came on stage, and would make great short snippets to help promote the event on social media.
The Fast Forward event already had an icon, in keeping with TEDx’s existing branding. The talented beatboxer Mr Shay (Akshay Sharma) had recorded an audio sting, and the Fast Forward logo, featuring the iconic double arrows, was begging to be animated to Mr Shay’s performance.
The challenge for us was to create a character design style that would work alongside the bold branding for the event and bring together the character animation and our vision for the animated logo and audio sting into a cohesive format that could be used to create an animated introduction for all of the speakers and performers.
After several sketches and a couple more evenings in the pub, we settled on a contemporary character style that could be easily adapted to bring out the best features of the participants. Thankfully, everybody loved the caricatures we created.
Kino Bino TedxLeicester Showcase
We made a film with fellow TEDxLeicester collaborator Lee Tomes of Orange Fox Studios talking more about why we wanted to be involved with our local TEDx event.
tedxleicester women
In December we were invited back to take part in the TEDxLeicester Women event at Gateway College. It was another amazing and inspiring day. The organisers brought together a collection of great female speakers who work in science, technology, sustainability and the arts. Big shout out to the TEDxLeicester team and all the amazing volunteers that brought these events to our city.
You can watch all the talks from both events at the links below:
