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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/8-14-august-2016/dragon-quest-live-spectacular-transforming-nintendo-game-live-stage-show/  
Dragon Quest Live Spectacular: turning a Nintendo game into a live stage show  

Gaming is generally a solitary activity, and interactions with other players tend to take place through the online world. So how can a virtual game be transformed to a real-life stage show, intended for a mass audience?

Set design and architectural practice Stufish is used to creating stage shows, such as for tours by Madonna, Queen and Lady Gaga, and the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

But the consultancy's latest venture has been quite different they were tasked with transforming cult Japanese fantasy video game Dragon Quest into a narrative-driven spectacle, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Nintendo-owned game. The show is currently touring theatres across Japan and will see up to 400,000 visitors in total.

Interacting with the audience

While gamers are able to influence consequences within a game, watching a large-scale theatre show, pop concert or musical is generally a spectator-sport, where audience members peer into a box rather than interact with the characters.

Stufish, however, has tried its best to make Dragon Quest Live Spectacular a participatory show. Audience members are able to influence on-stage action through individual wristbands which enable them to vote for plot twists and character actions and weapon choices in advance.

The set itself also incorporates dramatic use of projections, screens and 3D mapping, plus multiple stages scattered around the audience space, which aim to involve the audience “in the magical world of the video game”, says Stufish chief executive officer Ray Winkler.

Realistic graphics and costumes

The graphics and the costumes had to also be true to the computer game, says Winkler. “When you're in a 360° arena environment, there's so much visual smog,” he says. “Things like trussing, and cables from the rigging can obscure what's happening in the show, and it's obvious you're in the real world we tried to recreate the landscape you see when playing the game on a laptop, in the digital world.”

To do this, Stufish created moving, island stages across the entire arena floor space, including where the audience were seated, which allowed on-stage characters to walk through the crowd.

“It was difficult to direct”

This included eight satellite stages, two larger stages at either end of the arena, and a large performance stage at the centre which acted as the focal point for the performance and the action.

Having so many stages made the show difficult to direct, says Winkler. “When at the theatre, you generally look at one stage and the story unravels in front of you. Here, there was never one single vantage point with which to tell the story from.”

But the island stages were important to fully immerse the audience. The Stufish designers first thought of the formation when moving sugar sachets and milk pots around over breakfast, says Winkler. “We never veered away from that,” he says. “That formulated our first sketches, which went on to be the set.”

Digitalising the actors

The use of arial bridges and stages allowed for movement, and helped to reinforce the 360° performance space. “It was an ever-changing landscape,” says Winkler.

Projections coupled with clever use of materials such as gauze curtains and lighting also helped to create a more pixelated, digital look to the characters on-stage. The consultancy created a “conceptual bridge” out of two layers of projections, forming a corridor in the middle.

Performers were then harnessed and flown through this corridor of light, which created the illusion that they were digitally rendered and part of a projection seen on a hanging see-through curtain. Coupling these special effects with dramatic, bold costuming and graphic images, helped to immerse the audience within the imagined world, says Winkler.

“People were crying and screaming”

“There was a lot of emotion in the audience,” says Winkler. “Because of the environment, there was extreme audience participation to the point where people were crying and screaming. Of course, these are people who are heavily involved in the fantasy gaming genre anyway.”

While the show is certainly aimed at superfans, creating a large-scale spectacle creates a sense of commercialism and perhaps wider accessibility to an otherwise niche hobby but to truly understand the narrative, and not just appreciate the special effects, it definitely helps to have played the game.

“The show is very cacophonous,” says Winkler. “Everyone responds to the spectacle but to understand what it's about, you have to be in the know with Dragon Quest.”

Making the show true to the game

But how do you create a narrative for an open-ended game, the fate of which is ultimately decided by its players? Live show director Kahori Kanaya worked closely with stage writer and the game's creator Yuji Horii to create a “fixed narrative trajectory”, says Winkler, which “stayed true to the characters” in the game.

“There were quests, battles, low moments and high moments just like there is the game,” he says. “The characters had the same superpowers and faced the same villains that they do in the game too. It's about bringing something alive in 3D, which already exists well in 2D.”

“There's a lot of good will from the audience”

Designing for the stage means that a player's individual preferences are removed but in its place, the use of ariel techniques, projections and lighting tricks helps to maintain that feeling of a virtual world, even when sat surrounded by other members of an audience. Ultimately though, for this to work, the audience themselves have to be invested in the first place.

“If someone comes to a show like this, they're suspending disbelief,” says Winkler. “They believe that what they see in front of them is the Dragon's Quest. There's a lot of good will in there none of what we propose would actually work without that.”

Dragon Quest Live Spectacular premiered at Tokyo's Saitama Super Arena in July, and is currently touring across Japan until the end of August.

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/aug/12/fire-fire-inspiring-impressionism-rem-koolhaas-the-week-in-art  
The Great Fire of London, punk at 40 and a golden rhino the week in art  

Edinburgh steps back in time to prehistoric Scotland, Guantánamo shapes interior design, and Rem Koolhaas gets profiled by his son all in your weekly art dispatch

Fire! Fire!
An epochal event that marks the birth of modern Britain as Christopher Wren rebuilt the capital in its wake is explored in this family-friendly survey of the Great Fire of London. Find out how the Monument to the fire's outbreak doubles up as a telescope, among other gems in the ashes of history.
• Museum of London, London, until April 2017.

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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/8-14-august-2016/barbicans-new-shop-will-showcase-designer-collections/  
The Barbican's new shop will showcase designer collections  

The Barbican will showcase the work of designers including Lindsey Lang in its new shop, set to open in autumn.

The new 330m² retail space will include areas dedicated to collections covering homeware, stationery, clothing and jewellery, and a changing pop-up space devoted to showcasing emerging talent.

Lang and the likes of Kate Farley and Alfred & Wilde have been commissioned to interpret elements of the architecture and interior design of the Barbican's buildings in their designs.

The Barbican says: “The result is a collection of impeccably designed objects that subtly convey the gravitas of the building.”

Lang has created a series of geometric homeware, inspired by the Brutalist architecture of the Barbican's residential estate the Lauderdale Tower, focusing in particular on its textured, concrete walls.

Alfred & Wilde's Elements collection spans textiles, prints and homeware, and uses simple graphic illustrations and motifs to depict the modernist architecture of the Barbican Centre. The design studio has also collaborated with jeweller Wolf & Moon on a jewellery collection.

Illustrators Daniel Clarke and Kate Farley have created homeware and stationery ranges which also use graphics to interpret the architectural forms of the Barbican estate, while illustrator James Brown has created prints which visualises the language of music.

Charlotte Trounce has created a colourful kids' collection of stationery and games which incorporates characters and illustrations seen around the Barbican building, while photographer Anton Rodriguez and design writer Katie Treggiden have produced a book exploring the work of Barbican residents and the history of the site.

The new Barbican shop has been designed by architectural practice Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM), which has worked with the organisation on various projects over the last 15 years.

AHMM director Peter Morris says that the main aim of the shop was “flexibility and neutrality”, as it includes modular units which can be moved as the Barbican Centre's programme changes.

“In the context of the arts centre, [we wanted] to think of this more as a museum or gallery than a shop,” he says.

All the items will be available to buy at the new shop or via the Barbican's online shop from October, and range from £4 £55.

The new Barbican shop will open in October. At the time of publishing, The Barbican could not reveal an exact date.

All photos © Oliver Douglas, styled by Anna Sheridan.

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https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/aug/12/gas-lit-leeds-cinema-hyde-park-sites-heritage-lottery  
Gas-lit Leeds cinema among sites to receive heritage lottery cash  

Hyde Park Picture House wins £2.4m grant while William Morris's country home in Oxfordshire is one of 11 other recipients

A tiny cinema that opened in Leeds within months of the outbreak of the first world war, now believed to be the only one in the world still lit by gas, has won a £2.4m heritage lottery grant to restore historic features and open up its archives.

The Hyde Park Picture House is among a dozen sites receiving major grants, including William Morris's beautiful Oxfordshire country home, Kelmscott Manor, where the flowers and wildlife inspired many of his designs.

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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/8-14-august-2016/5-important-things-happened-week/  
5 important things that happened in design this week  

Subway got a new logo

Fast-food chain Subway revealed a rebrand this week, which sees a simpler, non-italicised logotype.

The brand is following the trend of flat, minimal rebrands, better suited to digital applications.

The border has also been removed from the typeface, and the colour palette reduced to only yellow and green, with a more orange-toned yellow shade and a lighter green used. The brand has retained its well-known arrows attached to the “S” and the “Y”.

Alongside the refreshed typeface is a new icon, which is an “S” comprised of the brand's green and yellow arrows.

Subway is rolling out the new design globally in early 2017, and will not reveal the designers behind the project until then but has said that the project was led by the company's in-house creative team alongside “a variety of design partners”.

Classic designs became more protected

Fake replicas of much-loved design classics will now be banned, under a change to copyright law that started rolling out this month.

This will affect copycats of designers including Charles and Ray Eames, Arne Jacobsen, Marcel Breuer and Phillipe Starck.

The change to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 means that revolutionary designs will now be protected for 70 years after a designer dies, rather than 25.

To benefit from this law change, designs need to qualify as “works of artistic craftsmanship”, a term coined by the Intellectual Property Office to determine whether something can be classed as “work of art” or not.

In case your work doesn't qualify as artistic or crafty enough, designers should still register their designs to protect their work, explains Dids Macdonald, founder at organisation Anti-Copying in Design (ACID).

You can read more about the copyright law change here.

The V&A announced a new £1 million retail space

London's Victoria and Albert Museum announced this week that it will be completely overhauling its main shop.

Studio Friend and Company has been appointed to complete the £1 million project, as part of the V&A's development programme FuturePlan.

Friend and Company is being paid £96,250 for the work and won the pitch out of six competing consultancies. The studio will be looking to create a retail space that works “in close dialogue with the galleries, exhibitions and events surrounding it”, according to the museum.

The opening date has yet to be announced.

We delved into a Roald Dahl immersive experience

Studio Bompas & Parr is known for its wacky, theatrical installations, from alcohol vapour bars to food museums. Next month's project is an interpretation of children's author Roald Dahl's book The Twits, a magical and terrifying theatrical dining experience.

This week, we spoke to the set designer Sam Wyer about translating the book to experiential theatre, and how he hopes to engross his audience.

Dinner at the Twits runs at The Vaults in London Waterloo, from 4 September 30 October.

To read our full interview, head here.

The MRI scanner was redesigned

Product design consultancy Frog has launched two new MRI scanner systems this week, which look to make scanning easier for babies and other scans less claustrophobic.

The WristView system is a hand and wrist MRI scanner, which allows only the arm to be encased rather than the whole body, providing a “non-claustrophobic” alternative to conventional scanners, says Frog.

The Embrace Neonatal System is a newborn baby scanner, which can prep and scan in under an hour, and is designed to be used within neonatal hospitals so that babies can be cared for throughout the scan.

Frog has worked with life-science company Aspect Imaging on the two new innovations. The consultancy has not yet confirmed when the products will be going to market.

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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/8-14-august-2016/childline-website-redesigned-to-offer-tailored-therapy-and-counselling-tools/  
Childline website redesigned to offer therapy tools and counselling  

Childline has worked with Amaze on a range of digital products, which can offer children and young people tailored services including therapeutic tools and different ways of communicating with counselors.

The children's charity, which specialises in 24-hour confidential counseling, is celebrating its 30^th year this year.

On the new site the needs of children aged 9-19 are catered for in different ways so that they can find the right kind of help they need.

Simplifying process for counsellors

Childline has 750,000 registered users and more than half of those currently contact the organisation via its website.

Amaze and its content partner Episerver won a tender for the project and first realised that the 1500 volunteer counsellors needed a simpler interface to navigate.

A new backend system was also developed, which Amaze says will help with security and guaranteeing the anonymity of service users.

“Essential therapeutic support”

Amaze chief executive officer Natalie Gross says that the service will “safeguard users” and provide them with “essential therapeutic support.”

Children accessing the service will now be able to use self-help and peer-to-peer features as well as counsellor-led therapies across different devices.

New custom built tools include chat features for single or multiple users, ways to indicate and express emotions, as well as other therapeutic tools such as the Drawing Tool, which encourages users to express their feelings visually, rather than through words.

“The new website will provide a forum for children to talk together, access articles, use therapy tools or talk to a volunteer counsellor in a safe haven, where anonymity and security is of absolute importance,” says Gross.

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/aug/11/rem-review-documentary-rem-koolhaas-tomas-koolhaas  
Rem review jet-setting portrait of world's most talked-about architect  

Globe-trotting documentary by Rem Koolhaas's son Tomas finds the film-maker racing to keep up with his 71-year-old father and struggling to achieve objectivity

One minute Rem Koolhaas is striding across sand dunes in Qatar, the next he's contemplating cows in a field in the Netherlands. In between, he's surveying the horizon of Beijing from a rooftop helipad, wandering the frozen streets of New York and escaping mobs of fans in Venice, before jumping in the sea to catch a moment of blissful solitude. “In a very compressed period, I am typically confronted with a literally unbelievable multitude of different contexts,” says the Dutch architect, as the camera follows him in quick succession from car to plane to boat.

You can say that again. As this new hour-long documentary jumps between the numerous locations where this globe-trotting 71-year-old is busy conjuring buildings from the ground, it sometimes feels like a feature-length commercial for a frequent flyer club.

Related: Rem Koolhaas's G-Star Raw HQ is like 'two brands having unprotected sex'

Koolhaas sounds less the radical provocateur and more like architecture's Amélie

Related: Tomes, sweet tomes: how Rem Koolhaas re-engineered the architecture book

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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/8-14-august-2016/music-helps-powerleague-transform/  
Music helps Powerleague create series of “football destinations”  

Music has rebranded five-a-side football brand Powerleague, which is repositioning around improved customer experience and digital services as well as the creation of “football destinations”.

Powerleague has football pitches and facilities across the UK and Europe where organised amateur football leagues and tournaments take place.

In 2015 Music was brought in to bring the brand in line with the repositioned business and improve the way customers engage with the brand's digital services.

Reinforcing local connection

A research phase identified core principles including the spirit of learning to play, local allegiance and pride, the growth of women's football and uniting people through “a sense of shared passion and community”.

Customer insight data revealed that 90% of players live within ten miles of the area they play in. In response to this Music looked to reinforce the idea of connection and local pride by designing a crest for each Powerleague club imbued with a sense of place.

There have been 50 Powerleague crests created, each designed so that it avoids colours or symbolism associated with known teams.

“Clubhouses” created and branded

Powerleague “Clubhouses” will be redesigned to reflect the new branding the first being Barnet before a further roll out takes place.

Music creative director David Simpson says: “This is what football is really about getting people together, creating a tribe and instilling local pride.

“Wherever you live and whoever you follow, the passion and energy behind football can be distilled into a powerful icon the club crest. It gives belonging and meaning. We look forward to seeing the adoption of the crests on kits throughout the UK and we can't wait to see the interior designs in place.”

A new site designed by Music with its digital partner Anything, will enable customers to access more services and localise their membership.

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