{"id":677017,"date":"2026-05-18T07:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T07:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/677017\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T07:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T07:22:11","slug":"linn-fritz-looks-at-the-lighter-side-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/677017\/","title":{"rendered":"Linn Fritz looks at the lighter side of life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"first-letter:text-5xl first-letter:font-display first-letter:font-medium first-letter:mr-3 first-letter:float-left first-letter:leading-[74px]\">Having fun. It&#8217;s a phrase that comes up a lot when you chat with Swedish illustrator and animation director Linn Fritz. And that&#8217;s refreshing to hear, particularly at a time when everything \u2013 even in the creative industries \u2013 is so geared towards productivity, efficiency and return on investment.<\/p>\n<p>Well, wouldn&#8217;t it be more fun to throw all that out the window, play around with some doodles and bend reality a little?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Of course, it&#8217;s not always fun to work, and it can also be a struggle to stay creative and motivated. But I love drawing fun, happy and humorous images, especially on tough days, as it makes me feel better, and I like to believe I make the world a little bit brighter by doing so,&#8221; says Linn.<\/p>\n<p>Brands like Apple, Nike, Spotify, MTV and Wired appear to agree with Linn&#8217;s philosophy and have turned to her for her playful take on life and the positive energy that flows soothingly from her delicate line work. It&#8217;s a style that&#8217;s come about through her training in motion design \u2013 where animations are built from simple shapes \u2013 but can be traced all the way back to her childhood.<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"w-full bg-cream-900\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 0.72\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0e0975260d456fa0ee09587c35eb2e6d275f6f56_944.jpg\"  alt=\"\" width=\"944\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"w-full bg-cream-900\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2f30297d86706d45fe7949a8c6e92455b066a9f6_944.jpg\"  alt=\"\" width=\"944\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve always had a vivid imagination and was a very shy child. Drawing was my way of constructing a fantasy world where things didn&#8217;t have to follow any rules of reality. And that has definitely leaked into my adult work,&#8221; says Linn. &#8220;With my personal work, I like to draw observational pieces with a little humour. I love for everything to just be a bit silly and happy. There aren&#8217;t big intentions behind everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It certainly comes through in the characters that populate her illustrations and animations, from her Round the Campfire project with School of Motion to the window and in-store visuals she created for Nike outlets across Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Belgium and Spain.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Coming from a Motion Graphics background, all the characters I animated were built using simple shapes, as that was easier to animate. And when I transitioned into illustration, I struggled so much with anatomically correct proportions, so instead of fighting it, I decided to lean into it, taking that insecurity and turning it into a strength,&#8221; says Linn.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"w-full bg-cream-900\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.3995801259622\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a338fe63bb143f4423a5ebf84cf790aa010f457e_944.jpg\"  alt=\"\" width=\"944\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"w-full bg-cream-900\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.4005602240896\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1a71b439b27228c9f3236e6cc8ae449265910531_944.jpg\"  alt=\"Artwork for Nike in Copenhagen.\" width=\"944\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Artwork for Nike in Copenhagen.<\/p>\n<p>Another of Linn&#8217;s favourite projects has been creating the pattern for a limited edition K\u00e5nken backpack manufactured by Fj\u00e4llr\u00e4ven in 2021. Using shapes cut from coloured cellophane, she assembled an abstract pattern for the bag&#8217;s surface, drawing attention to the problem of plastic pollution in the ocean.<\/p>\n<p>This ties in with the backpack&#8217;s eco credentials, as it&#8217;s made from recycled polyester and cotton. One per cent of the price was donated to organisations working to prevent plastic from going into the sea.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was very different to anything else I&#8217;d ever done, so the trust they put in me was such a great feeling,&#8221; says Linn. &#8220;It&#8217;s also a major Swedish brand, so it was lovely to be able to show my friends and family something outside the digital world, giving them a better understanding of what I do all day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"w-full bg-cream-900\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 0.8\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1dec73b363c9227e63e0c5e43262a8ecbba24627_944.jpeg\"  alt=\"\" width=\"944\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"w-full bg-cream-900\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.6\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0ba1c367c95b116e957453fd07d2e6f80c1e7b20_944.jpg\"  alt=\"\" width=\"944\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Currently based between London and Amsterdam, Linn has just signed with the Brilliant Artists agency, which will represent her in the UK, Italy, Japan and South Korea. She&#8217;s represented by Agent Pekka in the US, Europe and China.<\/p>\n<p>Linn is also a co-founder of Panimation, along with her friends Bee Grandinetti and Hedvig Ahlberg, a community for women, trans, and non-binary people working in animation and motion graphics. What began as a small Facebook group has become an important challenge to the boy&#8217;s club mentality in the industry. It has spread around the world, with chapters in several cities.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s next for Linn Fritz? &#8220;At the moment I&#8217;m exploring more analogue approaches like ceramics and drawings, but for now, they&#8217;re only part of my personal practice,&#8221; she says. &#8220;I have just created my own jigsaw puzzle and might sell a few, so keep your eyes peeled!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"w-full bg-cream-900\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 0.92577777777778\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3df986f45e9165e3ff23ce591df3d2f6e6ab6849_944.jpg\"  alt=\"\" width=\"944\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having fun. It&#8217;s a phrase that comes up a lot when you chat with Swedish illustrator and animation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-677017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}