Meet Julia Leonard | Motion Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Julia Leonard and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Julia, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
As a kid, my best friend and I used to spend our afternoons creating an iCarly imitation show. For those unfamiliar, iCarly is about best friends who start a comedy web show. They get up to all sorts of silly antics with sketches, guests, and the power of their imagination. We would write out a script, set up my mom’s camcorder, film the sketches, and then I would edit them on iMovie on our family computer. I loved editing those videos, finding the right clips, and cutting the story together. Although at the time I didn’t have any technical verbiage for video creation and editing, I understood that intrinsic feeling of a story feeling right or slightly “off,” at least at its most basic level. Most importantly, we created some of my fondest memories.

Those early years of having an outlet for creativity that was encouraged and supported by people in my life certainly led me to keep pursuing artistic endeavors. Specifically into videography and editing, and then motion graphics. The childhood excitement and passion that came from making those videos have never left, even as my creative pursuits have become more formal and professional.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Although I am a Motion Designer (After Effects = Life), I’m constantly finding ways to combine that with pursuits not completed on a computer. I recently made a stop-motion title sequence for the show Squid Game that is comprised of over 900 individual photos. I folded all the origami pieces, set up the studio, and 45 hours later had a title sequence to show for it. For another title sequence, I designed, printed, and covered 14 books to sit on a bookshelf.

I got back into sewing a few years ago and have been making shirts with Augmented Reality components. You hold your phone camera in front of the shirt and the animation appears on top of it, seemingly in reality.

It’s been an absolute blast combining physical elements in my motion design work and I don’t see myself stopping any time soon. It fills my cup, switches up the pace, and feels very ME. These projects are some of the ones I’m most proud of, and would not have had the confidence to pursue a few years ago when I was spending lots of time trying to fit into any particular mold.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Savannah, Georgia has lots of incredible spots. I would love to take anyone to get sushi at Ukiyo or a sandwich from Urban Deli. It’s nothing too crazy, but just wandering the streets and admiring the houses or sitting in one of the squares sounds like a perfect afternoon.

If it’s the evening, Totally Awesome Bar is where it’s at. I would be there playing pool all the time if I could.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many people I am grateful for and credit for helping me get to where I am, but in particular, I’d like to appreciate Keith Oppenheim, Joey Adams, Nathan Asquith, Mackenzie Rosario, and Marissa Garbiel.

Each of them has supported me in different creative and professional pursuits, and some of the incredible things that have been brought into my life (confidence being one!) wouldn’t have come to fruition without them.

Website: https://www.julialeo.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julialeo.creative/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julialeo/