Liberty Animation: A Journey Through Time
Created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Liberty, this 3D animation is a visual meditation on legacy, material memory, and transformation. Presented as part of the I AM. WE ARE. LIBERTY. exhibition in London, it bridges Liberty’s storied past with its dynamic present and imagined future.
The animation opens with sweeping scenes of Victorian London, grounding the viewer in the era when Arthur Lasenby Liberty founded his iconic emporium. Drawing inspiration from the building itself—constructed from the timbers of the Mayflower—the piece reflects on how Liberty’s physical structure is inseparable from its history of global curiosity and design innovation. Through abstraction and symbolism, architectural elements such as carved beams and golden details become metaphors for continuity and reinvention.
Inspired by Liberty’s vast 60,000-piece design archive, the animation transforms archival motifs into living patterns. Organic forms, flora and fauna, and signature textiles evolve in real-time, echoing the rhythm of Liberty’s creative legacy. This is not a didactic chronology but a poetic mapping—where past and present coexist through digital expression, evoking the hand-drawn energy of Liberty’s design studio while reinterpreting it through modern visual language.
Rather than a historical retelling, the animation is an emotional inquiry: What remains when everything else changes? It positions Liberty not merely as a department store, but as a cultural force—a living archive where tradition and experimentation coexist. As pattern becomes code and texture becomes time, the work reflects on how brands, like people, carry forward fragments of identity, always in flux, yet always rooted in story.
In this piece, digital animation becomes a medium of memory—resurrecting textures, materials, and atmospheres no longer present but still deeply felt. The use of slow, cinematic pacing allows the viewer to contemplate the tactile quality of Liberty’s heritage: oak staircases, stained glass, hand-printed silks. These fragments are not simply reproduced, but reimagined—transformed through light, motion, and abstraction to evoke a sense of timelessness. The result is an emotional landscape where viewers don’t just see Liberty’s story—they feel its enduring presence.
By blurring the line between craft and code, the animation pays tribute to Liberty’s enduring commitment to making. Just as Liberty’s designers hand-draw their patterns with obsessive precision, this digital work echoes that spirit through frame-by-frame attention to form, rhythm, and detail. It acknowledges that craftsmanship today exists not only in workshops, but in digital environments—where virtual tools, like brushes and beams, carry the same weight of intention. In doing so, the animation becomes part of Liberty’s lineage, not only preserving its legacy, but extending it into new creative realms.
