How a wannabe rollercoaster designer became a hotshot digital creative at Luxid

Lorna Inman dreamed of being a rollercoaster designer when she was a kid. True story. "I would have countless ideas for rides, tunnels, themes, stories, and write them in a book," says Lorna. "If only I'd known the first thing about engineering!"

Lorna believes that her fantasy rollercoaster design was the start of her love for the immersive arts. "I actually nearly took an opportunity to do a degree with a rollercoaster designer as the main tutor, but in the end, I chose a different pathway." 

And that pathway took her to the University of Leeds, where she studied Art & Design. Lorna then went on to study art at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. And it was the focus on digital art, videography, and 360 art that set her on her career in video editing and motion graphics and to Luxid as a Junior Digital Art Director. 

The arts and connecting to people through storytelling in the arts is Lorna's passion in life. And her inspiration is British artist David Hockney. "He has been my main inspiration for seeing and picking out the colour in natural landscapes since my uni days. My favourite works are his multiple-canvas large paintings of the countryside in England, says Lorna. "I think he taught me to see more colour in real life if possible. He's also super cool because he does digital stuff and stays up to date with technological advances in the arts, and he's 85 years old. He's still practicing."

Lorna was attracted to Luxid as she saw the agency understands the potential of applying the immersive arts in marketing, so they took a chance with me, to be honest. "I think we're creating some successful projects, and I love using the interactive and immersive design skills that I brought to the role."

Lorna says she's motivated by the fast-progressing industry and yearned to be a part of it. "I have to work hard to keep up to date with what's going on and stay relevant," Lorna explains. She believes that continual learning and improvement are incredibly important and that working with the 3D creation tool Unreal Engine has really pushed her forward.

And the focus on pushing forward aligns Lorna closely with Luxid's 'Resourceful' value. It's all part of being a determined and creative professional. And these attributes were very much put to the test for Lorna at the start of her career. "During Covid, I was asked to join a project as a lead artist to create a 360-degree immersive short film, says Lorna. "Long story short, we released a short seven months later, titled 'Girmit: An Untold Story of Indentured Labour." We all put our heart and soul into it because, hey, we had the time. I really deep-dived into my art style, which is where I kind of made a name for myself." Lorna describes the experience as her greatest accomplishment.

And when she's not head down with Unreal Engine and virtual production, Lorna loves travelling in South East Asia and being in the jungle and mountains. Bali is her favourite destination. In fact, she was there when she told us her story for this blog post! "I came here by chance, really, having seen an amazing spot on Airbnb, and two months later, I'm back again because I loved it so much."

And if Lorna could choose to do anything else for a day? "I'd spend the time as an astronomer or astrophysicist. I'd visit some of the biggest observatories and look at all the spacey stuff. Even better – can I switch brains for the day with one of them and actually understand some of it, too, maybe?"

While Luxid can't help you to hang out in the biggest observatories or to be a rollercoaster designer, we can enable you to realise the potential of your creative talents in our Creative Excellence team. Everything you need to know about working for Luxid is here.