Local designer rewarded with Emmy in New York

LYDENBURG – Elizabeth Steinberg has placed Lydenburg on the map by recently winning an Emmy for graphic design and art direction during the recent Emmy Awards in New York, America.

She was honoured for her work in a documentary for National Geographic entitled Future Cat, an animation film telling a story of how big cats adapt to the changing planet.

“Future Cat makes one realise how vulnerable our earth is and that we need to take care of it because it is already changing as we speak,” said Elizabeth. During her interview with Steelburger/Lydenburg News she said she did not expect to win at all. “I feel very grateful but also very lucky. It is nice to be rewarded for the hard work, but I also feel that I was probably just at the right place at the right time.”

Elizabeth grew up in Lydenburg, started school at Laerskool Lydenburg, proceeded to Hoërskool Lydenburg, completed her studies at the University of Pretoria and obtained a BA in information design.

After graduating she worked in Gauteng before moving overseas. She married Kendall Reid and the pair then moved to the United Kingdom. They have two children and while they were there, her husband was transferred to Los Angeles. She then got a job at Big Machine, which is where Future Cat was created.

The art direction for the film was inspired by the wooden carved arts and crafts one sees at curio stalls in South Africa. “We built everything in a 3D programme but wanted it to have that tactile feel with slight imperfections,” she said.

It took the director a year to present the idea to networks and almost three months with a team of six animators/designers to finish 45 minutes of animation.

“The biggest challenge was to create a look that has high- production value, yet is easy to execute. Since the timeline was so tight, optimising workflow became essential.”

She said what she enjoyed most was the great team she worked with. “I worked with extremely talented people and it was nice to work in an environment where you are always kept on your toes while getting inspired.”

She is no longer working with Big Machine and her plans are to focus on a company she started with her husband. It creates educational interactive games for kids and they are currently busy developing one for those with special needs. She hopes it would benefit kids from all around the world, especially Africa.

“I grew up in a very creative house, my dad is amazing at carpentry, welding and building stuff. My mom is always busy with a craft project. It was definitely a great creative environment to grow up in.”

According to her mother, Cobie, she never understood how much it meant to win an Emmy award until her daughter did.

“I remember when she called us to tell us the news. I had to Google so that I could understand. When she finally received her award, she asked Kendall to take a picture of her and sent it to us. I am so proud of her.

“One of my friends in Pretoria called me to tell me that she saw a poster in the streets saying my daughter had won an award.

“I felt that she is finally getting rewarded for her hard work,” she said.

Her father, Jan, said they are very proud of her. “When she first told us about her career choice I asked her if she did not want to study something more substantial like medicine or engineering, but she explained that she loved the art- and animation-related field. We are glad that she did what she loved and now received an international award,” he said.

Elizabeth’s advice to young people is that they should be willing to work very hard. “I definitely burned the midnight oil many nights. Never stop learning, this industry is growing at a lightning speed and you have to stay on top of trends and technology.

“The most important thing is to be a nice person, you can have all the talent in the world, but at the end of the day people like to work with nice people,” she added.