JONATHAN HOULDING - PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Biography


About


I am a Production Designer for film, television and commercials living in London, UK and a postgraduate of the Royal College of Art, London. I have been in the film industry for over 20 years, working for, collaborating with and learning from some of the world's leading Art Directors, Production Designers, Directors and Producers. As an Art Director this includes; Sir Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, Neil Jordan, Joel Schumacher, Daniel Espinosa, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Yorgos Lanthimos amongst others.

I have won numerous awards as a Production Designer including a Bafta for 'Save the Cinema' for best production design and a number of high ranking awards for my work in commercials including wins at the AICP, the Clio's, The One show, Les Club des D.A., DWA Awards and the ADC Awards. During my time as an Art Director I was awarded Art Directors Guild of America Awards for my contribution to both The Martian and Poor Things which also won a BAFTA and Acadamy Award for best production design.

Although trained in traditional cinematic design processes and techniques (pencil on paper, in camera VFX etc) I am an advocate of and user in all new digital technologies where appropriate. This starts in pre-production and concept stage within the art department through to construction and along the VFX pipeline. I thrive in being involved with any form of project which involves world building from the get go, or includes complex set design, prop design, construction or VFX. I also thoroughly enjoy adapting and building in/on existing locations.

Beginning my career as a draftsman, storyboard artist and set illustrator, I progressed to being an Art Director/Senior Art Director. In this role I have been fortunate enough to work both within the Art Department overseeing large set constructions and Set Decoration overseeing complex prop design and makes. 

One of my key strengths is my ability to quickly and confidently visually communicate through the drawn image, be it a quick sketch to full construction drawings or rendered conceptual illustration (either as a 3D computer model or 2D). I am extremely competent in all forms of construction drawings and methodologies and I am always looking for news methods/technologies to communicate in a better, clearer and quicker visual language. I am a 'hands on' designer and am often found on set with paint brush in hand.

I have also taught widely in leading universities throughout the UK in both Fine Art and Film and have given talks on designing for film at Industry Workshops. I have an in depth knowledge in the history of art, architecture and other design fields. I am also a practising artist, please visit jonathanhoulding.co.uk to view some of my work. 

As the head of department I am keen to be able to support new and up and coming talent to the industry particularly from areas of the community under-represented in the film industry.

Regarding my technical knowledge I regularly use  in my design process Vectorworks, Rhino, Blender, Zbrush, sketch-up, keyshot, Illustrator, photoshop, In Design and all traditional media.

I am a voting member of BAFTA.

Countries worked in include; Ireland, Wales, Hungary, France, Lithuania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Thailand, Czech Republic, UAE, Hong Kong, Macau and Mexico City.




Fine Art


Alongside my practise as a Production Designer I also work as an artist. I am a graduate from Wimbledon school of art and the Royal College of Art, London. For the last 25 years I have primarily worked as a draftsmen, creating work that explores differing forms of psychological spaces, be they architectural or in abstracted forms. The drawings act as forms of portraiture navigating internal states of being, personally, socially and universally.


My work has been exhibited internationally and is major museum collections of the V&A London, the Miro Foundation, Sammlung Lenikus, British Council and the UCL Museum. I have been fortunate enough to be able to teach in various Universities, such as the Slade School of Fine Art, the Royal college of Art, Metropolitan University London and UCA Farnham. I also established and ran an Arts Council funded gallery in south east London whose polemic explored notiosn around Installlation. Here I co-directed for two years and co-curated 9 shows exhibiting over 52 International artists and 13 publications.

You can see a small sample of my work here:

Jonathanhoulding.co.uk


Education


MA Royal College of Art
MA (Distinction) Kingston University
BA (Hons) Wimbledon School of Art

Guild - BAFTA (Voting member)


Contact



Direct contact: studiojonathanhoulding@gmail.com


Represented by

UK: LUX ARTISTS

Rebecca Fayyad Palud (Film and Television): rebecca@luxartists.net
Jerry Deeney (Commercials): jerry@luxartists.net

LONDON

40 Great Portland St
London, W1W 7LZ
+44 (0)20 7637 9064

PARIS

1-3 Rue Rougemont
75009 Paris
+33 1 43 44 09 69

US: MURTHA SKOURAS

Ann Murtha (Film and Television): ann@murthaskouras.com
Holland Murray (Commercials): holland@murthaskouras.com

LOS ANGELES

1025 Colorado Avenue
Santa Monica
CA 90401

+1 310 395 4600