New Blood Entry — The Perfect Present

It's never an easy task trying to find a good present for your partner on their anniversary, let alone the perfect present. After all, what could be more perfect in this world than them?

The challenge was to create an animation that conveys how a memorable gift is not only an object, but also an experience and store of emotion, which can be found at John Lewis and Partners.

Every background object we see in the animation is either found in John Lewis or inspired by it (including an armour made of carpet which can be found in the Leeds John Lewis).

We wanted the animation to look like a painting and give it that personal feel, like the brand it's supposed to represent. As such, the majority of it was animated on twos using a mixture of brushes and textures to achieve this. The musician was a challenge to find as we were looking for someone who would specifically be able to create a soundtrack with a piano-esque style that could really give that John Lewis feel, and we succeeded in finding a music student who was happy to oblige (credited as Jacob Maloney).

The resulting animation tells the story of a South Asian man on a mission to find the perfect anniversary present, and how he succeeds in doing so.