david leick-burns
 
* david leick-burns
 
 

David was born and raised in North West England and had his first weekly comic-strip published by a local newspaper at the age of 11. He followed up this love of creating and drawing cartoons some years later when he moved to Manchester, with an altogether more adult creation, 'The Grovers', appearing in listings magazine 'Scene Out' in the early 90's and later on  in the early 00's with the interactive comic-strip 'Scene Queens', published in the teenage style magazine 'J-17'.

A year at media-college in London in 1992 lead him to take a week's work placement at the studio that was then the leading light in UK animated commercials, 'Hibbert Ralph Animation'. Instead of returning to college he was taken on by them and stayed for eight years. It was during this time that he learned the craft of 2D animation, firstly with sponsorship to 'The Museum of the Moving Image' where leading artists from the industry passed on their knowledge and tricks of the trade, and then working within the studio on countless commercials for television and film.

His first job after leaving 'HRA' was with the studio 'Passion Pictures' on the ground-breaking and multi-award winning music videos for the band 'Gorillaz', working on all the videos from the first and second albums and a series of shorts for MTV.  Other assignments there included being 2D key supervisor of the team that created the 'monkey' inspired TV stings for the BBC coverage of the 2008 Olympic games and the opening cinematic for the video game 'Beatles Rockband'.

David moved to Luxembourg in 2007 and has since worked with leading creative agency 'Vidalegloesener' on projects for 'Luxair', an extensive road-safety campaign aimed at local school children, and most recently the creation of characters to promote careers in the IT industry with 'Next Level'. He has also collaborated with 'Login music' at the 'Orchestre Philharmonie, Luxembourg', creating the visual accompaniment to, firstly, two musical stories for children, 'the Wee Green Van' and 'the Three Wee Hens', and then Benjamin Britten's 'The Storm', (which has subsequently played in Poland too). 'Romeo and Juliet' premiered in 2009 in the concert 'Forbidden Love'  accompanying Tchaikovsky's 'Fantasy Overture' and has since been seen by audiences in Germany. Following that 'The Accursed Huntsman' (Le Chasseur Maudit) enjoyed great sucess in summer 2011 and lead to a profile of David's work appearing in the Luxembourg magazine 'Telecran'.

The 2012 season at the Philharmonie had David tackling the Gothic classic 'Night On Bald Mountain'  with his own story 'The Brownie and The Witch'. He is to take this particular project further, and, working with the Luxembourgish animation house 'Studio 352' and film production company 'Juliette Films', he will be directing it as a fully animated short film with support from the Luxembourg Film Fund. It is expected to premiere sometime in 2014.