Duration: Two years.

Location: London, United Kingdom.

Key creatives: Matt Blue is self-taught, and Loanne Le has a BA in animation practice from Ravensbourne University London in North Greenwich, London, United Kingdom. Prior to Le.BLUE, Le worked in the visual communications industry for six years, and Blue for eight.

Artistic influences: Le finds inspiration from consciousness and the dream state. Escher, Dalí, de Chirico and Magritte—surrealism has always fascinated her. Growing up, she watched a lot of fantasy, sci-fi, and dystopian films and animations, with Akira and the films of Studio Ghibli being particularly captivating. She attributes these experiences to her studying animation at university. Le also notes that her love of comics and manga has likely influenced Le.BLUE’s affinity for black-and-white illustrations.

Blue holds a diverse set of influences: European sci-fi comics, manga, surrealism, modern art, anime, cartoons, ’90s hip hop, jazz, electronic music and sci-fi films. In terms of graphic design, he loves the Swiss approach of Josef Müller-Brockmann and the Italian designers Bruno Munari and Massimo Vignelli.

Favorite projects: Blue would pick the poster series Le.BLUE created for Village Underground for its 2018 and 2019 seasons, as it was a challenging project that involved both his and Le’s varied set of skills. Le adds that she is proud of these projects as well, as she credits the projects with developing their approach as Le.BLUE.

Le’s other favorite projects include the work they created for NXT Entertainment, as it is a successful example of blending illustration, graphic design and animation all in one. Another of her favorite projects is the work they did for musical artist Tomas Crow. The animation is looser and more rugged than Le.BLUE’s typical style, but Le found it liberating and fun to create.

Work environment: We work in our home studio in east London, which we share with a dear friend who is a music producer, so the house is always creatively vibrant and the music is always loud. Our workspace is a converted corner of the living room. There’s a lovely terrace with lots of light and we have two long desks where we sit side by side. It’s neatly cluttered with lots of stationery and hardware—and of course, we have an overflowing library of books, comics, graphic novels and manga! Being based in London, we are quite fortunate to have a great diverse community around us; there’s always something going on.

Approach: As we are a duo, we have the combined experience and skillsets of two in one. We can reach clients that we may not have been able to on our own, but we are also small enough to  still have an intimate personal relationship with our clients. With the extra pair of hands, we get work done twice as fast.

Philosophy: Perseverance is key. Constantly challenge yourself and keep learning. Stay true to your work and self. Always be kind and compassionate.