Forty years after his death, the Antoni family and Gallerist Mikael Hauberg are reintroducing the gems from the Ib Antoni Archives to the world. They have partnered with Studio AKA to create two animated gifs directed by Steve Small, bringing to life the two Ib Antoni Illustrations Tivoli and Concierge.
Ib Antoni (1929-1973) was one of the most sought-after Danish visual artists of his time. His desirable and significant work was commissioned by more than 150 companies and organizations worldwide. Including LIFE Magazine, Volvo, UNICEF, The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and many more. His impressive body of work culminated in the era often referred to as Danish Modern.
To create the sequences, Studio AKA director Steve Small saw that the best way to bring these to life and pay respects to their status as design icons was to animate the poster exactly as is, reproducing the painterly textures and creating effectively an animated poster, in portrait format. Using TV Paint, Flash and Photoshop the team was able to give the animation the hand-drawn feel of Antoni’s original drawings. The pieces were artworked to give it the colour and texture needed to keep it true to the illustrations.
“I’ve long been a fan of Ib Antoni’s work. Which meant that bringing it to life in animation was both a pleasure and a challenge. After all, these images have been in peoples’ minds for decades so you better make sure when you move them, they remain true to the spirit and look of the originals. Big boots to fill. Our question to ourselves was ‘ Let’s not tip-toe around this, can we animate this in full 2d hand-drawn animation, with every frame a new hand-drawn painting and get so close to the look and the character, that if you were to pause on one particular frame, it will actually be the poster itself.’
