Steve Cutts is an activist illustrator and animator based in London, England. His artwork satirises the excesses of modern society. His style is inspired by cartoons from the 1920s-1930s, as well as modern comic books and

graphic novels A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and ...

Animations

Before becoming a

freelancer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

in 2012, Cutts worked as an illustrator for the London creative agency Glue Isobar. He worked on digital projects for companies including

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 ...

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

, and

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

. In 2012, Cutts created his most popular film, ''MAN'', which has

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

and

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

themes. Animated with

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...

and

After Effects Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc.; it is used for animation and in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. Among oth ...

, Cutts describes the film as "looking at man's relationship with the natural world." , the video has over 68 million views on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. In January 2016, a Cutts couch gag for a season 27 episode of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' featured an homage to 1980s action TV shows such as ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs, Ricardo "Rico" Tub ...

''. , the video has over 25 million views on YouTube. In October 2016, a Cutts video for the song "Are You Lost in the World Like Me?" from the album '' These Systems Are Failing'' by

Moby Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...

and the Void Pacific Choir addressed smartphone addiction, with

Max Fleischer Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 11, 1972) was an American animator and studio owner. Born in Kraków, in Austrian Poland, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became a pioneer in the development ...

-inspired animation. Moby hired Cutts to create the video after being "amazed and blown away" by his ''MAN'' film. The video won the 2017 Webby Award for animation. In June 2017, Cutts illustrated another video for Moby and the Void Pacific Choir, "In This Cold Place" from the album '' More Fast Songs About the Apocalypse.'' Cutts stated that both Moby videos represent "consumerism, greed, corruption and ultimately our self-destructiveness." In 2017, Cutts won the Jury Award at Annecy International Film Festival, the highest award which is a qualifying factor to be eligible for nomination at the Academy Awards. This was for the music video "Are You Lost in the World Like Me?" In 2018 for the second-year running, Cutts was the Webby Award Winner in the Film & Video Animation Category for original cartoons, motion graphics, illustrations or digitally animated images premiered on the Internet. Cutts made

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...

's curated list of just 12 for the New Directors' Showcase at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June 2018. Of the final reel, Scott said: "The range of the work submitted this year has been remarkable. We've taken great care to ensure that the 2018 reel not only reflects great ideas but also considered craft and production."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cutts, Steve English animators British animated film directors English illustrators Living people Anti-consumerists YouTubers from London Year of birth missing (living people) YouTube animators Webby Award winners YouTube channels launched in 2012