John "Run" Wrake (24 November 1965 – 21 October 2012) was an English animator, film director, graphic designer, and music video director. He was best known for his 2005 short film, ''Rabbit''.

Early life and education

Wrake was born in

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

on 24 November 1965. His father was a chaplain assigned to the British army there. He grew up in

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. He studied

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

at the

Chelsea College of Arts Chelsea College of Arts is a Colleges of the University of the Arts London, constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. It offers further education, further and higher educ ...

, later graduating with an M.A. in animation from the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

in London. His 1990 animated student film from his days at the Royal College, ''Anyway'', aired on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

's '' Liquid Television'' in 1994.

Career

After graduating, Wrake worked freelance, illustrating and designing album covers and tour visuals for artists such as U2 and

Howie B Howard Simon Bernstein (born 18 April 1963, Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish musician, producer and DJ who has worked with artists including Björk, U2, Tricky, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Soul II Soul, Robbie Robertson, Elisa, Mukul Deo ...

, in addition to directing commercials for companies such as

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. He also directed music videos, many of which were for Howie B. He later began working with Animate Projects, which commissioned him to direct animated short films. In 2005, he released his animated short film entitled ''Rabbit'', his most notable work. ''Rabbit'' tells a morality tale about the dangers of greed through a

Dick and Jane ''Dick and Jane'' are the two protagonists created by Zerna Sharp for a series of basal readers written by William S. Gray to teach children to read. The characters first appeared in the ''Elson-Gray Readers'' in 1930 and continued in a subseq ...

art style. Wrake's main inspiration for the film was an envelope he found in a thrift shop containing children's educational stickers, illustrated by Geoffrey Higham, from the 1950s. The film received numerous awards and nominations, including a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

nomination for Best Short Animation Film at the 2006 BAFTA Awards.

Death

In November 2011, Wrake was diagnosed with lung cancer. This inspired him to direct the short film, ''Down with the Dawn'', with music by Howie B. On 21 October 2012, aged 46, Wrake succumbed to the illness.

Filmography

References

External links

Official website
*
Run Wrake
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrake, Run 1965 births 2012 deaths British advertising directors British album-cover and concert-poster artists Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts Alumni of the Royal College of Art British animated film directors English animators English film directors English graphic designers 20th-century English illustrators English music video directors People from Sussex