levis: variations on a theme

With a musical, metamorphic theme, the film’s central character is a woman representing strength, sexuality and intimacy, and functioning as a powerful agent of change. The animation is artworked in oil and chalk pastels, watercolour and ink brush.

Client: Levis

Agency: Foote, Cone & Belding

Production Company: Susan Young Ltd

Director: Susan Young

Producer: Susan Young

coca cola: world dance

This commercial combines live-action with animation rendered in the negative technique, (images painted in reverse colours). Materials used include watercolour, bleach, paper doilies, feathers, glitter and lace. During post-production sequences were reworked in Flame, adding further animated elements to the work.

Client: The Coca Cola Company

Agency: Edge Creative

Production Company: Susan Young Ltd

Director: Susan Young

world cup cricket

Imagining a wide-angle camera lens swooping freely about the pitch, this animation comprises a series of rapidly transforming sequences representing key moments in a game of cricket.

Client: ITC India

Agency: Hindustan Thompson

Production Company: Susan Young Ltd

Director: Susan Young

classic fm

Inspired by the drawings of Saul Steinberg and set to music from Delibes' The Huntsman, this was the launch film for Classic FM. The images issuing from each instrument playfully reference the soundtrack.

Client: Classic FM

Agency: Bainsfair Sharkey Trott

Production Company: Mojo Working

Director: Susan Young

jeep cherokee: imagination

A series of impressionistic animated landscapes represent wild terrains. A sense of movement through the commercial is achieved by using one element from each scene as a transitional point, initiating a metamorphosis to the next scene.

Client: Jeep Cherokee

Agency: CME KHBB

Production Company: Mojo Working

Director: Susan Young

one world

This title sequence was commissioned for One World, One Voice, a worldwide collaboration of many musicians initiated by Kevin Godley and intended to raise awareness of global political and environmental issues. The titles are artworked in the negative technique, giving the animation an almost jewel-like intensity of colour.

Client: BBC – One World Broadcasting Trust

Production Company: Felix Films

Director: Susan Young

sleepia: blue wave

Artworked simply in dip pen and blue pencil, the woman depicted in this commercial was created from a series of life-drawings.

Client: Pfizer

Agency: Integrator

Production Company: Susan Young Ltd

Director: Susan Young

holland: flower of europe

Scenes representing life in Holland are artworked in oil pastel using colours and textures reminiscent of Van Gogh’s paintings, several of which are referenced within the commercial.

Client: Dutch Tourist Board

Agency: HJSW

Production Company: Mojo Working

Director: Susan Young

american football: the big match

American football teams are pitted in combat, the players shifting between their human form and the animal or image representing each team. The commission continued over a three-year period, visuals for every team were created, and the imagery was interwoven throughout the televised programmes.

Client: Trans World International

Production Company: Susan Young Ltd

Director: Susan Young

budweiser: men

This commercial was commissioned to air during the Superbowl final. Animated sperm, variously distracted by ova, then huddle, arrange in formation, snap and score, in an accurate depiction of an American football play.

Client: Anheuser-Busch

Agency: Colossal Pictures

Production Company: Mojo Working

Director: Susan Young

vande mataram: world peace

Each colour segment of these titles features an abstracted bird. The saffron sequence hints at a phoenix, representing courage and sacrifice, the white sequence features doves, symbolising truth, and the green sequence contains a peacock-like bird expressing the fertility of soil and plant life. Live-action footage of flames and water combine with animation artworked in pencil and painted on glass. The titles resolve into the Indian flag with its spinning Ashoka Chakra representing the law of dharma and the dynamics of change.

Client: BharatBala Productions

Production Company: Susan Young Ltd

Director: Susan Young

fleetwood mac: tango in the night

Commissioned by WEA in late 1987 to promote Fleetwood Mac’s #1 album Tango in the Night. The film zooms into the album’s cover, which transitions to an animated jungle-scape rendered in lush oil pastel.

Client: WEA

Production Company: Metcalf and Mills

Director: Susan Young

island 25

Commissioned by Channel 4 as the title sequence for three documentaries celebrating Island Record’s 25th anniversary in 1987. Chris Blackwell admired Susan Young’s work immensely and she was given free rein to create an animated overview of Island’s illustrious history, from My Boy Lollipop to The Joshua Tree.

Client: Island Records

Production Company: Island Records

Director: Susan Young

Parfum Bic

A film commissioned by Bic, whose 20 million franc campaign audaciously launched a range of perfumes retailing at about £2. Bic aimed to revolutionise the perfume market, as it had reshaped the retail landscape with its disposable razors and ball-point pens. Having secured the services of master perfumiers, and after building a factory to manufacture the range, and buying the company that made the vaporiser pumps, only one vital ingredient remained. Bic had to find the filmmaker who could realise their vision: to challenge the lingua franca of perfume advertising, add a splash of novelty, and convince the public to take a risk on Parfum Bic. After a three-month search, Y&R discovered Susan Young, and commissioned her to animate this fluid and sensual commercial, featuring a couple tangoing to the music of Richard Gotainer.

Client: BIC, William Desazars of Montgailhard

Agency: Young and Rubicam

Production Company: Practical Pictures

Director: Susan Young