Original design by concept artist Tadahiro Uesugi for the key Pink Palace house apartment complex set in Coraline, from Laika Ent. for release by Focus Features. All images © 2008 Laika, Inc. All rights reserved.

In what turned out to be a crafty coup for Coraline (opening Feb. 6 from Focus Features), director Henry Selick tapped renowned Japanese illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi to serve as visual designer for the stop-motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman's novella. In Coraline, the eponymous young protagonist unlocks a mysterious door in her new home to a fantastical parallel world that's much more exciting than her drab one.

"Tadahiro's heavily influenced by late ['50s] and early ['60s] American illustration, the kind that's portrayed in Mad Men, back when photography wasn't the first place you'd go to solve things," Selick told Metropolis. "It's a fresh, illustrative style, very graphic, but he adds a touch of soul -- a tiny bit of reflection in a water surface, a shadow, a disturbance of atmosphere. His work breathes."

Uesugi recently discussed his first-time cinematic experience doing concept designs on Coraline with AWN, and you can enjoy some of his exquisite work.

Bill Desowitz: How were you first approached by Henry Selick to be the visual designer of Coraline? Your beautiful, minimalist, '50s/'60s retro look seems to have been a perfect match.

Tadahiro Uesugi: When I met Ronnie Del Carmen and Enrico Casarosa of Pixar, in Tokyo, they asked me if I was interested in working on movie projects in the United States; my answer was yes. They delivered my interest to Mike Cachuela, a former colleague of Ronnie and Enrico at Pixar, who recommended me to Henry Selick.

An original design for the key Pink Palace house apartment complex. Disney's 101 Dalmatians is a key influence on Uesugi's work.

At the beginning, it was supposed to be a small project over a few weeks to simply create characters; however, I ended up working on the project for over a year, eventually designing sets and backgrounds, on top of drawing the basic images for the story to be built upon.

BD: What were your impressions of the Neil Gaiman book and its illustrations and what inspiration did they provide? Have you met Neil and discussed your concept work?

TU: I haven't had a chance to meet Neil Gaiman himself, but I drew the designing process upon the story of the Coraline book released in Japan. (By the way, illustrations of the Japanese version of Coraline book are done by a Japanese illustrator.)