Our Manchester studio is home to some brilliantly skilled 2D Designers! To keep themselves on their artistic toes, they have set themselves a biweekly design challenge.

The challenge is simple:

1. An artist from the team selects a topic.

2. Each artist creates a design based on that topic.

3. The designs are showcased in our Manchester studio and admired by all.

“The challenges give us the opportunity to work on themes and concepts we might not get to do day-to-day in studio, and with each other picking different topics, we end up drawing things we might never pick for ourselves. It’s also really cool to see the different designs we each come up with.''

- Matthew Howorth, 2D Designer

Past topics include Soldiers, Wizards and Dino-miners:

MEET OUR DESIGNERS…

We wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to our awesome Manchester 2D superstars and give you a little peek at what gets them ticking!

Name: Jamie Buchanan

Role: Lead Designer

Instagram handle: @jamiebcartoons

Favourite Animated Character: Homer Simpson

What are your essential items:

iPad Pro - mainly for sketching, I draw in this almost every day. (Working on a caricature of comedian Chris D’Elia, as I listen to his Congratulations Podcast as I work).

Match of the Day Magazine - a magazine aimed for kids. Don’t care. It’s still football.

Figurines - Chris Griffin and Homer Simpson, both from 2 of my favourite shows.

MAD Magazine - greatest magazine of all time, the best caricature artists have all worked for the magazine.

The Mad Art of Caricature book - by my favourite caricature artist Tom Richmond. The bible for how to draw caricatures.

Bart and Homer stationery holder - has followed me everywhere since 2003.

Beats by Dre headphones - great for listening to message alerts from Google Hangouts.

Name: Blanca Sobrino

Role: 2D Designer

Instagram handle: @b.sobrino

Favourite Animated Character: Buzz Lightyear

What are your essential items:

Football - I love sports and football is one of my favourites, so I always have a football close to me (usually under my desk, I like to play with it while drawing on the computer. It’s kind of relaxing).

Fruit and chocolate - I always get hungry while working and I really, really love fruit and dark chocolate so I always have some of these “majares” (delicacies) close to me. They give me the energy I need to maintain my focus and creativity.

Picture of the most beautiful dogs in the world - working on this amazing job has a few cons and the biggest one is that I have to be far away from my little babies so I like to have a picture of them on my desk.

Bottle of water and a super cool Iron Man glass - staying hydrated is very important! (And Iron Man is very cool…)

Pencils, sketchbook and post-it notes - I think this is the main essential. I always carry them so I can write/sketch down any idea that comes to my mind so I don’t forget it by the time I have a moment to develop it.

Buzz Lightyear mug - to stay even more hydrated! (And because Buzz Lightyear is even cooler than Iron Man)

Iron Man and Thanos Legos - what can I say?? Avengers are cool, Legos are cool… mix them together and there you go.

Polo mints - to always have your mouth fresh.

Name: Matt Howorth

Role: 2D Designer

Instagram handle: @matthoworth

Favourite Animated Character: Edna Mode

What are your essential items:

Books - so I have books from two of my favourite artists, Mary Blair and Tadahiro Uesugi.

Cap - my red cap which I wear most days in the studio.

Christmas ornament - one gaudy Christmas ornament (I… really like Christmas).

Yayoi Kusama figurine - a figure of the artist Yayoi Kusama whose work I love.

Tote bag - my favourite tote bag to carry my fish-shaped business card and some sweets, snacks are very important. The pens and pencils I sketch with.  A small tin that I keep bits and bobs in, and post-its, which I draw dumb stuff on.

Up pin - The grape soda pin from Pixar’s ‘Up’, it’s one of my favourite movies.

Caffeine - a cup of coffee, definitely essential.

Name: George Crosbie      

Role: 2D Designer

Instagram handle: @GeorgeCrosbieArt

Favourite Animated Character: Squidward

What are your essential items:

iPad - for digital drawing on the go, also for watching YouTube videos while digital drawing on the go.

Iron Giant figurine - pose-able! And a favourite film.

Plant - rescued from near-death and an excellent desk buddy.

Sketchbook - for messy and rough ideas.

Pencil case wrap - for drawing the aforementioned messy and rough ideas.

Banana - potassium for morning energy.

Board games - it’s important to have downtime from work and socialise, and board games hit the spot.

Psychonauts figurine - love this series for its great and off-kilter character design.

Graphic novels - when you need that extra kick, reading something with great art, characters and storytelling can spark that creative energy inside you again.

In November our 2D Design team would like to invite you to take part in our 2D Design Challenge!

The topic will be posted across our social channels - Instagram, Facebook, Twitter - all you have to do is tag us @BrownBagFilms in your entries by the deadline.

So keep your eyes peeled for more details coming soon… and pop any questions you have for us in the comments below!