131: [BEST OF] What Morph is really like - Gavin Strange, Director & Designer at Aardman Animations.

Call To Action

This year marks 5 years since our maiden episode with Richard Shotton in February 2019. To celebrate Call to Action® turning 5, we asked the …Gasp! team to rummage through all 130 episodes for us to re-release some of their favourites.
Back in January 2020, we kicked off the year with fizzy, fuzzy energy. The fizz and fuzz faded come March 2020, but before that, we packed our plasticine and carried out a search of The Avon to pick up Bristol’s finest maker of noise, Gavin Strange.
By day, Gavin is Director and Designer at the beloved Aardman Animations, the Academy Award winning studio behind Wallace & Gromit. It is probably easier to ask what Gavin does not do, a sucker for a night-time side project, under the pseudonym of Jam Factory, he’s also an author, toy inventor and speaker on the global circuit.
In one of the …Gasp! team’s all time favourite episodes, Gavin talks to us candidly on having car parts thrown at his head, pixels, plasticine, what Morph is really like, the unlikely crossover of Maya Angelou and Dragon Ball Z and why we need more wonky things.
Feel better about marketing with Episode 28 of Call to Action® with Gavin Strange.
Follow Gavin on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn
Check out his website
And get his book: Do Fly
Timestamps
(01:59) - Quick fire questions
(02:40) - First jobs, having car parts thrown at his head, getting a job in design
(10:00) - Tinkering and creating his alter ego JamFactory
(13:15) - What it’s like working at Aardman Animations
(16:39) - Pixels vs plasticine and long standing characters like Morph
(23:30) - Being time buddies with Beyonce and how he gets so much done
(33:10) - Doing silly stuff and his directorial debut
(41:50) - Writing his book Do Fly
(53:00) - Listener questions
(1:00:00) - 4 pertinent posers

Gavin’s book recommendations are:
Feck Perfuction by James Victore
Draplin Design Co: Pretty Much Everything by Aaron Draplin
Why? How? What? The First Big Book of Art by Brosmind
Cabinet of Curiosities by Guillermo del Toro
Anything by Shepard Fairey