Artist Research: Joey Chou

Born in Taiwan, Joey Chou is a visual development artist who has worked in animation for the likes of Dreamworks, Disney and Warner Bros for the past 10 years. He graduated from Art Center College of Design in California before going on to work at Sony Animation. Through my love of Disney and the Art of Disney books made for each production, I became aware of Chou and was inspired by his ability to portray a movie though his colourful and graphic style.

As I mentioned before, his style is recognisably unique from other concept artists with its bold use of colour and geometry; it's clear to see his influence from Disney artist, Mary Blair. Blair is recognised as being one of The Walt Disney Company founding artists who paved the way for female artists being one of the first, she had a unique flair when it came to colour and characters working with Walt Disney to produce the likes of Fantasia, Dumbo and Cinderella throughout the mid-1900s. It's interesting to see how he's taken influence from such prominent artists and combined it with modern design elements. Below is a comparison of Blairs early drawings from Peter Pan and Chou's illustration inspired by the movie. It's amazing to see how designers today continue to take inspiration from artists generations ago. The styles are so similar in composition showing how advanced Blair was, even with the limits of the technology we now take for granted.

For Disney fans, in particular, his work engenders the fun and enjoyment of being at one of the Disney parks around the world. It's clear to see Chou's inspiration from Mid-century design, from comic books to the geometry aspect in his work, with the characters and landscapes comprising of angular shapes and triangles. Looking at a few of his illustrations for Disney's WonderGround gallery, you can see how he's taken scenes from the movies and altered the design and colours slightly, bringing them up to date while keeping hints of the magic from the originals. Many of which, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Cinderella (1950), were produced in the 1900s and animated very differently to today. Each keyframe of the production was sketched by hand and coloured by 'ink-and-paint people, whose job it was to bring the scenes to life. Backgrounds were usually painted in watercolour with the character animated on top. What once was an extremely long process or drawing each scene traditionally has now, with the advent of technology, become much quicker and diverse in terms of effects, music and artistry. This is one of the reasons I like Joey Chou, as his artwork is representative of both old and new designs and has a lot of similarities to Mary Blair and other original Disney artists. As you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of The Walt Disney Company and find it so interesting seeing how animation and concept art has developed, especially with Disney being one of the biggest franchises in the world.

Examples of work Chou has produced for Disneys WonderGround Gallery

Chou has worked with some of the biggest visual development companies including Sony Animation, DreamWorks and Marvel to produce artwork for movies and productions. My favourite commission of his was for the rebranding of Disneyland Tokyo in 2018, of which Chou produced all the new branding, used in hotels and around the parks. The park opened in 1983 so Chou updated the park with new 'It's a Small World' ride exterior and created character murals for the park hotel to add continuity and make the design seamless through the park. Chou's surrealist style and vibrant colours correlate with the park's focus and aim to bring enjoyment to families; an escape from the everyday.

Artwork used for the rebranding of Disneyland Tokyo, 2018 

To conclude, Chou is an amazing commercial artist, whose style can be adapted to most briefs and companies, making him commercially viable. This is a huge part of design, to look at current trends or movements and make artwork that will relate to people to therefore evoke an emotive response; Chou does this very effectively and it is something I strive to achieve in my work.