The Story of Digital Voice: Laura Crow
Over the fifteen years we’ve been in existence we’ve collected a rather wonderful group of people who bring their skills and experience to our projects. Our freelance team is one of the aspects that make Digital Voice stand out from the crowd. This week I caught up with illustrator and animator Laura Crow, about her work for the organisation.
Laura is an illustrator and animator who trained at Northumbria University, where she now teaches. Shortly after graduating from Northumbria in 2007, Laura met Julie Nicholson and the Digital Voice story began.
“I’d started off volunteering for Digital Voice, doing stop motion animation projects. It was old school then, even if it’s only 15 years ago. Big clunky laptops, tripods, cameras; a long way from having one iPad and an Apple pencil!”
Since then Laura has been a regular freelancer for Digital Voice both animating stories and teaching others how to do digital drawing. It’s this variety and range of subjects that keeps Laura interested and inspired:
“A lot of our stories are very niche and that’s what I love. I’ve just finished work on Consett Park Bowling Club, which I would have known nothing about before this project.”
It’s some of these niche stories that have led to the creation of some rather wonderful animated characters including Suzi the Hen. Suzi, in case you’ve forgotten, was a famous Chopwell hen, who enjoyed hopping on and off the bus to High Spen and Laura has immortalised her here:
“Suzi was the first animation I’d done for a few years, after a period of feeling a bit fed up with it all (animation, not Digital Voice!). I loved creating her character, it was fun and she ended up being so cute. We ended up using her image all over Chopwell to guide people on a history-themed walk.”
And she’s not the only North East icon Laura has animated. This year marks the 25th birthday of The Angel of the North and together with writer (and fellow Digital Voicer) Susan Mulholland and some of Gateshead’s Art Diamonds, Laura created a beautiful animation to celebrate the world famous sculpture.
“The Angel project was really special and was one of my favourites to work on. Everyone has a connection to the Angel and there’s so much love for this symbol of the North East. The process of working with the participants and Susan was really fun too, we all enjoyed remembering our own experiences with the Angel but then also indulging our imaginations and picturing what she’d be like years in the future.”
It’s clear that the participants really enjoy working with Laura, I asked what she gets out of it:
“I love working with people and this work introduces you to a range of people from all walks of life. It’s been really humbling to talk to people dealing with all sorts of issues or experiencing difficult situations and it feels important to be able to help tell their stories.”
To find out more about the programmes Laura mentions please visit our programmes page.