At Surrey Wildlife Trust, we strive to champion young creatives and conservationists, providing a platform to not only bolster their budding careers, but give them a voice within the nature conservation sector. We commissioned the below film from students Holly Welch & Giaccomo Grilli Blair earlier this year, and worked with them closely to provide industry experience and practical conservation knowledge.
Student animation champions Surrey’s stunning heathlands
Surrey Wildlife Trust collaborated with Kingston School of Art Illustration Animation students Holly & Giaccomo to produce an animation on the great fragility of Surrey's landscapes and the need to protect them.
If drastic intervention isn’t taken, our rare and wildlife-rich heathlands could suffer further fragmentation and decline, and future generations will be robbed of the clean, green spaces that we take for granted. We’re facing barren landscapes, tempestuous skies and polluted rivers - and this bleak future is far too close for comfort.
Holly & Giaccomo’s film shows us there is still hope. If we come together as a community and protect what is our responsibility - ours to steward - we can prevent this future from becoming a reality, and reverse the damage that’s been done.
If you can, please help us help nature with a donation to our winter Heathland Appeal, before it’s too late. For this week only, we're taking part in The Big Give's Christmas Challenge, meaning that any donations we receive to our Heathland Appeal will be DOUBLED thanks to match funding from generous philanthropists.
Meet the animators
Hello! We are Holly & Giaccomo, the student artists behind this short animation. We’re so incredibly lucky to be working with an organisation that addresses arguably one of the most pressing issues affecting us both locally and globally. The animation was created entirely digitally, with plenty of textures and fun shape language. We’re so so grateful to have been selected for this opportunity, and have learnt so much throughout this project. We hope our animation helps you consider what we stand to lose in Surrey if we don't act now!
"It's so important that we do everything we can to save our local wildlife before it's too late- time really is running out!"
- Holly Welch
"I still believe that we can make significant changes to save our planet and our future."
- Giaccomo Grilli Blair