Data blooms and gardens glitch in Rob Farmer’s generative animations

We first discovered Rob Farmer’s work when we came across his Data Blooms series – a beautiful set of generative animations made with kinetic typography in Cavalry. You’d be pretty surprised to hear the designer and illustrator only started experimenting with motion a few years ago when he discovered the animation software in between projects working at a creative agency in New York. Although a lot of his biggest design inspirations are creative coders, such us Talia Cotton and Ksawery Komputery, “sadly I don’t know how to code”, he tells us, “but Cavalry felt very intuitive and let me design generatively. What I like about generative design is that it’s simply number values that drive or define other values.”

In this algorithmic approach to motion, Rob’s generative design work often depicts patterns found in the natural world, using type or simple graphic forms like stitches as a dynamic material for movement, but not in conventional ways. Even if made digitally, his portfolio feels like it fits into the fabric of our analogue life and unfolds from natural, evolving and familiar patterns. “I think the natural world will always be much nicer than a digital one,” he shares, “but I like trying to recreate these patterns with a computer.”

Rob’s inventive approaches to motion have shaped creative commissions for Google, a campaign for Coinbase as well as illustration commissions for journals like The Economist, but the majority of the designer’s work is for the sole purpose of play. “Whether it’s drawing or using software, I love making without purpose and I create a lot in my spare time. I think it’s really important to make space to create work outside of ‘real’ work”, he says. Having moved back home to Melbourne this year, after his creative stint in NYC, Rob’s new role at a brand design studio has given his personal creative work a new meaning – “I’m always kinda imagining that I could use these silly little things I put on Instagram in a thoughtful and fun brand system. Hopefully one day I will!”, he ends.