Celebrating Aurelia Lange's ongoing collaboration with sustainable energy company: Bulb

To celebrate Aurelia Lange’s lengthily collaboration with sustainable energy company Bulb, we chatted to her about the creative process behind animating Bulb’s energetic seasonal mailer headers and how they reflect the ‘go green’ attitude of Bulb and its users.

Bulb is a green energy company that aims to help consumers reduce their energy costs, consumption and waste. “We want to make the whole industry better. And there are three ways we’re trying to do that – we’re making energy simpler, cheaper and greener.” – Hayden & Amit (Bulb’s Founders).

As Bulb’s values rest in reducing environmental impact, Aurelia’s work has to reflect this in its output. “One of the themes I like to include in the imagery is thinking about energy and the elements, As Bulb is a green energy company, I really love that all 4 natural elements are used – Solar (Fire) , Wind (Wind) , Bio fermentation ( Earth) , and Hydro ( Water). Creating imagery around energy doesn’t have to be pipes and production – it can be interpreted in quite broad terms, I like to use the opportunity remind Bulb members that by being with Bulb they are having a positive impact on the environment and all who inhabits it.”

Aurelia recently spoke to Bulb about her process when creating their mailer headers, defining it as 4 key steps…

“Step 1: find your concept 

At this stage, it’s good to ask some questions: ‘what do you want to communicate?’, ‘who is your audience?’

For the December email header, I worked from a concept of bird feeders over the winter months. This felt like a familiar, seasonal idea, which related to the environment and our relationship with it.

Step 2: research to understand your concept

It’s important to research around your concept and approach the idea with fresh eyes. Again, I asked myself some questions: ‘what type of birds do we see in December in the UK?’, ‘how do they behave?’. I watched videos of robins on YouTube before I started drawing.

Step 3: question through drawing

Drawing is a practice and language of looking, questioning, communicating and responding. To make an animation you need multiple frames, or many drawings. Together, they create the final moving image.

The need for so many drawings requires patience and allows room for exploration and playfulness, as you don’t rely on a single image to tell the whole story. I use pen, black Indian ink on paper. I believe drawing by hand creates more room for expression and experimentation.

Step 4: sequence, edit and simplify the animation

Once I have enough content to play with I scan the drawings and clean them up on Photoshop. This can take time but, by going through and addressing each frame, I always see something new. At this stage, I apply colour to the drawings so that they fit with Bulb’s brand guidelines.

When creating this email header, I was delighted to finish with drawings that I would never have arrived to had I not gone on such an inquisitive journey to study our robin. It reminds me of one of my favourite quotes”

When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we have already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we are going, but we will know we want to be there. – Bruce Mau, ‘An incomplete manifesto for growth’

Visit www.bulb.co.uk to see more of Aurelia’s stunning Illustrations for a truly great cause!