LA Gifathon (Screenshot: Vimeo)

Over the summer, London-based animator James Curran, proprietor of SlimJim Studios, spent a month in Los Angeles. Curran decided to immortalize his visit via cute, colorful animated GIFs. The artist says he created “a new GIF every day for 30 days inspired by something that happened during my stay.” The results have been compiled into a charming little short film called LA Gifathon. Here is an opportunity to see the City Of Angels from the point of view of a creative Londoner with a unique perspective on the much-loved, much-hated metropolis. Happily, at least on the basis of the evidence represented here, the artist’s memories seem to be largely happy ones.


LA Gifathon from James Curran on Vimeo.

What stood out about L.A. for Curran? Judging by these GIFs, he was most impressed by the omnipresent traffic, the various things people do in the name of fitness (hiking, biking), the food (street tacos, sushi, In-N-Out Burger), and the bevy of ersatz Spider-Men hanging out in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre hoping to have their picture taken with tip-dispensing tourists. Speaking of which, Curran obviously took the time to do plenty of the typical touristy things while in L.A.; there are GIFs referencing the Walk Of Fame, Disneyland, Muscle Beach, and more. He even took a studio tour, represented here by a vignette in which he occupies the Warner Bros. water tower, à la Animaniacs.


For the truly impatient who don’t have two minutes to spare for this miniature travel narrative, Curran has posted the 30 individual GIFs to SlimJim Studios’ Instagram account. Here, for instance, is Curran’s extremely literal interpretation of that time-honored L.A. custom, the juice cleanse.


And here is the artist browsing the formidable inventory at Amoeba Music on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.


In the above instance, Curran seems to be referencing an iconic ad campaign from the 1980s.

[via Laughing Squid]

