Playful Scenes by Julian Frost Animate the Absurd through Minimal Details

A nose juts out of a pool, with a person's silhouette in the background

All images © Julian Frost, shared with permission

Illustrator Julian Frost might equate his animations to one-liners. Minimal in composition, his works convey a simple idea through succinct absurdities. A line-drawn character walks with an exceptional amount of purpose only to wander a tiny cube or slam into a pillar obstructing its path, while another figure dances in an endless loop of flying daggers, detached body parts already lining the floor.

When creating, Frost strives to pare down his animations to just the necessities, likening them to jokes “so well-crafted you couldn’t remove a word.” The goal is to create what he calls “idiotic zen poetry,” conveyed through repeating motions, clean lines, and healthy doses of negative space.

Find more of Frost’s animations and illustrations on his site and Instagram. You also might enjoy this conversation with Christoph Niemann who discusses wit and distilling ideas.

A person walks in a box

A person walks down the street with extrusions applied to each component

People walk and slam into pillars

A person dances in a cube with flying daggers

A person climbing uphill and then down

A black dot morphs into a smiley face and then a more detailed portrait of a man

three people walk but get nowhere

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