A WARRINGTON born artist who designed iconic children’s character, Bob the Builder, is to launch a new exhibit in the Warrington Museum looking back at his extensive career.

Curtis Jobling is an animator and artist who grew up in Great Sankey before going on to design hit television show Bob the Builder.

Now, his new exhibit ‘World-Building’ will showcase work from across his career including stop-motion puppets and models, original manuscripts with early designs of characters and never-seen-before sketchbooks.

“My connection to Warrington Museum goes back to my childhood and it always fascinated me,” he said.

“It was full of stories that inspired me so to be back there doing an exhibition is a real thrill.

“When I met with the museum team and we decided it was going to be a look back at my career and all the things I’ve worked on, I had to go in the loft and dig everything out.

“I’ve got piles of early design work and dozens and dozens of sketchbooks from different shows. Then there were all the original paintings.

“So, it was a matter of corralling all those things together and suddenly you realise it’s a very extensive body of work covering animation, publishing and creative writing.

“The thread that runs through all those aspects of my career is creativity and building worlds.”

Curtis, who studied at Penketh High School, got his first job opportunity working on Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave after writing a letter to Aardan Animations.

“Pretty much straight out of art college, my first experience of the industry was what went onto be an Oscar-winning film,” said Curtis.

“It was only a week, but it was a real eye-opener. The one thing that I designed myself that made it into the film was the ‘Sud U-Like box.”

Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit, encouraged Curtis to go out into supermarkets in Bristol and draw washing powder boxes to ensure his designs were inspired by the real world.

Curtis then went on to work with fellow Penketh High alumni, Ian Mackinnon, to craft puppets for Tim Burton film, Mars Attacks.

But Curtis considered starting a ‘real job’ designing kitchens as opportunities began to dry up shortly after – until he was asked to create a new character called Bob the Builder.

“I was given free rein to design everything on the show from scratch and I was only 24 or 25 at the time so it was a huge deal,” he said.

(Image: Archant)

“Bob is now a classic children’s character. It’s mad.

“I worked on the show for 10 years and I’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the world – wherever I’ve gone Bob’s been universally loved.”

The exhibit won’t just be about Bob, though, as museum visitors will also have an exclusive first-look at images from Netflix’s upcoming animated series, Wolf King, based on Curtis’ Wereworld novels which first launched in 2011.

The Netflix series, which will be released later this year or in early 2025 under the name Wolf King, represents the culmination of more than a decade’s work and will be 16 episodes.

Curtis is the show’s creator, lead writer and associate producer, working alongside Lime Pictures and producers, Jellyfish Pictures.

“Netflix are renowned for being secretive about shows in production,” said Curtis.

“But visitors can enjoy an exclusive first glimpse at some stills from Wolk King at the exhibition. You won’t see them anywhere else.

“I still talk about Wereworld when I visit schools and festivals, but the optioning, development and production of the show breathed new life into it.

“It feels very much like a north west production, what with collaborating with Lime Pictures in Liverpool, but the footprint is a lot bigger because we’ve got animators and creatives from all over the world.

“It looks spectacular.”

The exhibition will be available to view in the Warrington Museum for free between Saturday, June 15 and Sunday, September 29.