At 59, ideas for projects can present themselves in different ways. Sometimes we’re approached to collaborate on an existing piece of work, sometimes we’re given a blank-canvas commission, sometimes we’ll develop an idea ourselves.
Regardless, the first stage in developing a creative approach involves unearthing the story we want to tell, building a narrative, developing a treatment and identifying key story beats. Through creative workshops with the interdisciplinary team and round table sessions with the Project Directors and Art Directors, we’ll decide what lies at the heart of the project and how design and technology can be harnessed to then bring that idea to life.
We may work in different disciplines and in different locations, but our values always remain the same – we strive to find new, inventive ways to use design to tell compelling stories.
To immerse ourselves within the world of the story, we undertake extensive research, priding ourselves on our ability to always dig deeper, to go beyond the surface. We read, research, gather references, sketch.
But our work never exists in a vacuum. We make places for audiences to escape to, so our first thought is always about how we can engage them. Developing a concept often culminates in a script which helps us create a narrative blueprint to inform the eventual design.
Here we’ll begin to evolve concepts into design principles and visual ideas: 3D modelling, sketches, VR, physical models, look development, visualisations, scene build ups and renders – they all help us imagine what a project might look and feel like. The technical design and producing approach happens simultaneously, considering feasibility, budget, scale, technical design, and seamlessly blends into the overall vision of the project.
A bespoke team of collaborators all harmonise to bring a piece to life; animators, architects, sound, lighting and costume designers; composers, graphic artists, editors, writers. Space is created for regular design crits with the wider design studio where interrogation of the initial conceptual and the design response to it is carried out.
We take these conceptual design responses to another level with drawings, 3D models, animatics, storyboards, animation tests, model box projector tests, technical designs, and the preparation of construction drawings. Music and sound design is also developed at this stage.
Next, we move into Production – visual content of various kinds is created – , live action shoots, animation and interactive development, often closely integrated with the physical elements of the design. Scores are written, music is recorded, construction drawings are sent off to be built.
But turning designs on paper into something physical requires another layer. Scenic finish testing, completing material studies, overseeing workshop and on-site build and collaboration with fabricators brings us closer to realising our Story Driven Design.
Where our world is realised. On-site direction for the production period will take place and all elements of the project are brought together during the technical rehearsal periods, ensuring the show is coherent from beginning to end. In the lead up to opening night, the show is then developed in response to rehearsals and previews.
However, no project is complete without the most important ingredient – the audience. Whether watching a performance in the theatre, walking through a museum space, taking in an immersive show, or encountering one of our large-scale public artworks, the audience provides the magic, and they are the reason we do what we do.