ALEXIS CHRISTODOULOU: MINI gave me a great deal of creative freedom in the design process. There was no concrete brief; they didn’t want to limit my creativity. That was great for me, because it meant I could try out a lot of things.  

AC: Digital art isn’t just about setting the stage for a product, it’s also about explaining spaces and worlds, designing them. And the bigger the product, the easier that is. It’s better for scaling. I have created urban worlds with a strong focus on architecture, but also worlds in which nature takes over the MINI. Rendering the car posed a bit of a challenge, though, because the MINI Concept Aceman is characterised in part by its experimental shapes and materials. I spent a long time working on the roof rack simulation, for example

Finding 3D technology that makes it seem as real as possible – the colour, the shape, the material –wasn’t easy. Another point was the door animations. The MINI Concept Aceman has really complex hinges, it turns out! I had to design the car in its different perspectives in such a way that the doors also opened as they would in real life. So essentially, I tried to understand the MINI with all its features in its entirety. I really had a lot of fun getting to grips with the finer details.

At the end of Christodoulou’s creation process, we were left with four different digital environments. Three of them interpret the MINI Concept Aceman’s Experience Modes – Personal Mode, Pop-up Mode and Vivid Mode. The fourth piece takes on Colour Burst – a burst of colour that initially spreads across the floor of the car upon opening the door, before continuing across the interior via projections and the circular OLED display. 

I worked with flowers for my interpretation of Colour Burst. That was an obvious choice for me as flowers are very colourful. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have been integrating natural elements into my work more and more often. I thought that while the world came to a standstill due to the lockdowns, nature reclaimed the city. The Colour Burst animation begins in a clean space; then the doors of the MINI open and flowers sprout out. They then gradually take up more and more space. The colours I used for the work naturally blend with the colours of the MINI Concept Aceman – such as the characteristic green.

The different modes ensure that something is always happening in the car’s interior. And the environments I’ve designed are always in motion, too. I tried to create a harmonious relationship between interior and exterior. For Vivid Mode, the result is a simple environment that gradually transforms into a wonderful, colourful space where the car is taken to new heights. So I really drew on the movement, the game that characterises this mode. 

Exactly. After all, the driver can select a particular experience using the interior display in this mode. A wheel of fortune spins to decide the destination. I thought it would definitely look charming if the environment simply spun around the MINI and transitioned in my interpretation. This movement means the scenery transitions from day to night and back again. I worked with contrasts here: one world features muted colours, the other is trendy and plays with neon light. 

That was the biggest challenge for me, because the driver can choose a family photo for the display and thus personalise the ambience for the driver. Content matching the picture is then projected across the dashboard and doors, combined with light and sound. That’s why I wanted to leave my own personal touch on this piece. So I tried to use some architectural ideas and animation technologies that I recently got to grips with for the presentation of this MINI. My very own Personal Mode, so to speak. 

Christodoulou cuts a relaxed figure as he leans back in his chair. The work he has done for MINI is his last job before taking a break for the summer. After a family holiday in Italy, he will get back to work: his studio is growing, and he plans to hire more staff. At the beginning, Christodoulou would never have thought that he would have so much success with digital art or that his hobby would become his job.

Computer games have always fascinated me – the digital worlds and the effects. Back in the day, I often played games like King’s Quest and watched TV shows that explained how these games were made. It always seemed super complicated and elaborate. At some point, my friend showed me a digital table that he had sketched with a really easy program. There were even some tutorials on YouTube already; I watched them and did some initial sketches, but didn’t render anything. All pretty straightforward. I taught myself everything over the years. 

That’s right. At some point, I started posting my work there. Initially, Instagram was just a sketchbook for me, to collect ideas. And a channel to connect and chat to other digital artists. Eventually I was uploading a rendering every other day, then one day I was approached by a large company wanting to book me for paid orders. I opened my account a good eight years ago now and was in the right place at the right time as a result.