A PROJECT celebrating Skipton and the Yorkshire Dales is under way featuring familiar local faces with a twist - everyone is a dog.

The future animated series Dogs’ Dales is the brainchild of Virpi Kettu, a Skipton-based digital artist and animator with her local digital business Kettu Studios. Virpi created six characters, based directly on familiar faces in the town.

There’s Jeff, a wise Yorkshire Terrier and captain of a canal tourist-boat; Joan, a local artist and designer; an Italian greyhound, Luc; a French baker Bernese Mountain dog; Judy, the town centre organising cocker spaniel, Mark, ice cream selling philosopher lurcher; and Georgina, an Afghan hound who takes travel photography and loves to meet new people and dance.

North Yorkshire County Council Chair Cllr Jim Clark went to meet Virpi at her studio in Skipton to celebrate how Virpi’s animation brings creative industries to North Yorkshire.

Cllr Clark said: “It’s wonderful to see creatives like Virpi in North Yorkshire. It shows that successful creatives like her don’t have to flock to London.

“Creative industries are important in the county and it’s brilliant to see Virpi’s success.The fact she likes Skipton and the wonderful residents so much to dedicate an animation to it, too, is testament to the brilliant people in North Yorkshire.”

Kettu Studios is an example of how the growth in creative industries is driving new investment into North Yorkshire. Over recent years, the creative industries sector has been growing significantly here in Yorkshire, helped by the region being chosen as the new headquarters for Channel Four.

Virpi said: “I want people to come to Skipton and see the special people and special places. Once you do, you realise how magical it is. I wanted to celebrate Skipton and the Dales with a new story.”

Virpi’s creative CV most recently includes the music video Resilience, a hit by pop royalty Katy Perry. She has also worked at Aardman, working on Shaun the Sheep and Wallace and Gromit.

She said: “When I first came to Skipton six years ago – with the intention of staying for ten months – I noticed that everyone has dogs. I’d also discovered that wool was a good material to make models out of, and Skipton has a rich history with wool and translates as ‘sheep town’ so it all made sense to do the project here.”

Virpi hopes to implement virtual mobile device app tours of Skipton where people can meet the Dogs’ Dales characters through a mobile phone or pad app, and one day to expand Dogs’ Dales into other towns in the Dales.