My Bristol Favourites: Gavin Strange

Gavin Strange, senior designer at Aardman, is getting ready to celebrate the launch of his first book, Do/Fly: Find your way. Make a living. Be your best self. The book will be available starting May 5. Strange, an artist and filmmaker, has created mini-movies about black holes, designed the sign at The Fleece and planned several Gromit and Shaun the Sheep statues. You can see his past work at his website, www.jam-factory.com

Here are Gavin’s top-five Bristol favourites:

The sprawling green of Bristol

I made a film for my book recently, and because it’s called Do Fly I wanted to film Bristol from above. My good friend Rob Anthill is an aerial filmmaker and came down to Bristol to shoot it. We got up at 5am to get clear and quiet views and it was wonderful. I appreciated Bristol’s green and luscious lands from a whole new perspective. Seeing just how much of it is covered in flora and fauna warmed me cockles, it was a lovely sight and reaffirmed my love for the natural beauty of Brizzol.

The creative community

The sheer amount of interesting, inspiring and creative people here is so so rad. There’s so many folk doing really unique things, whether that’s on their own or as a team or a company. Events are put on, companies are started, things are made, ideas are generated – there’s ‘stuff’ happening all the time here and that energy, that constant cycle of making things happen is infectious and inspiring.

The hills

Yeah they’re tough to walk up, but man they give you some good views! Being at the top of any one of the hundreds of hills here gives you such a beautiful view of the rest of the city and the rolling hills that lay beyond. The only thing that can make this view better is a pink & orange sunset dipping below those luscious green lands.

The independent spirit

The Cube, The Watershed, Papersmiths, Soma, Hangfire Gallery, Marks Bread, Lionheart Magazine, Cereal Mag – that’s the tiny tip of the independent iceberg. In so many cities, there’s carbon copies of everything; every coffee shop, restaurant and establishment is exactly the same as in every other town. Now, don’t get me wrong, Bristol has this too, but there’s so many fantastic independent stores, ventures and places that started with nothing more than an idea and a ton of passion. No hedge fund, no investment, no nonsense – just honest desire to make something than embodies the spirit of the people behind that. I love it. Well done, Bristol.

Aardman

I know I’m biased, but I really love Aardman and everything it stands for in Bristol. It’s celebrating its 40th birthday this year, and I love that it’s proudly making things with the same honest intentions as it first did when Peter Lord and David Sproxton started playing with animation back in the 70s. It’s very proud of being in Bristol, and I think Bristol itself is very proud in turn. The fact that this place, this cathedral of creativity, makes things that are so dearly loved and cherished by the nation, through the generations, and it’s heart is in Bristol… Well, it simply doesn’t get more inspirational than that.

Read more: My Bristol Favourites: Shankari Edgar