Tuesday, 9:23am
7 December 2010

Be animated. Smile!

Let’s turn London Underground’s screens into a digital playground

Smile for London aims to raise the spirits of London underground commuters through
 a series of motion works to be displayed on the large platform screens across the underground network, write Jo Kotas and Alex Stevens.

We have invited guest artists / designers from Aardman through to Blast Theory to create content in support for the project, and there is a public call for submissions to compliment the curation (deadline 9am GMT 15 December). The best of the public entries will be chosen by our panel of celebrated curators: Stephen Bayley, Dawn Shadforth (RSA), Gavin Lucas (Creative Review), Jeremy Boxer (Vimeo Awards) and Neville Brody.

Above: Balloon (for Smile for London) from Liam Brazier on Vimeo.

Smile for London is produced by Meme Partnership, a socially focused creative enterprise merging public art with contemporary campaign initiative. As directors / founders of the company, we initiated the project in order to create a more inspiring underground space whilst pushing the creative boundaries of the digital platform projection screens.

Above: Tube Rats: Xtreme from Ryan Brotherston on Vimeo.

The success of the venture will be measured through the awareness we raise within the creative community, and the network that is built merging the various approaches to moving image from conceptual art through to animation. Our main focus right now is to generate as much support as possible, and hopefully turn this into a permanent London fixture.

Above: Spreadsheet Invasion from Amy Thornley on Vimeo.

The full list of guest artists and the shortlist for the public submission swill be announced on 16 December.

Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It’s available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop. For a taste of the latest issue, no. 77, see Eye before you buy on Issuu.