Art direction and user experience (UX) design can be used together to create immersive storytelling experiences that increase user engagement as . Art direction involves making decisions about the visual and aesthetic aspects of a project, including the use of typography, colour, imagery, and layout. UX design, on the other hand, focuses on creating user centred experiences that are easy to use, navigate, and understand.
“Art direction brings clarity and definition to our work; it helps our work convey a specific message to a particular group of people. Art direction combines art and design to evoke a cultural and emotional reaction… without art direction, we’re left with dry, sterile experiences that are easily forgotten.”
While considering art direction and storytelling, I came across an interesting interactive adaption of the Oscar-winning black comedy: “The Banshees of Inisherin” (2022). Directed by Martin McDonagh, the film focuses on the imploding friendship of two men living on a small island off the West Coast of Ireland. In response to the films success, Irish brand experience agency Cogs and Marvel released a retro video game inspired by the film on St Patrick’s Day of this year.
(above) Mock print advert created for the game
(above) Banshees (2022) **poster
(above) Colin Farrell as the film’s protagonist Pádraic Súilleabháin
The games goal is comedically simple and perfectly summarises the film’s plot: Get to the pub alone and enjoy a quiet pint. In a similar premise to iconic, early computer games like PacMan; the user plays as the film’s begrudging Colm, who must evade his pestering ex-friend Pádraic. The game includes makes reference to its original source material; incorporating key elements of the story to enhance the user’s experience. Ominous severed fingers are littered throughout the maze to provide power ups. The player must weave through a maze-like paths; rendered to evoke the iconic, Irish landscape lined with crumbling stone walls which characterised the film’s cinematography. The designers also included fun Easter Eggs like Jenny the Donkey too!
(above) The films main characters played by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson digitised
(above) The games retro aesthetic inspired by pixellated, early computer games
The games interface is expertly modelled off early, digital games like PacMan, which I mentioned earlier. To immerse the audience within this theme, we view the game from an aerial lens; watching the characters move through the country paths. A bright, high-contrast colour palette and pixellated renderings further emphasise the playful, retro tone of the game.
(above) Early PacMan interface
(above) Snake game interface
Hozier-Byrne’s team effectively utilised the aesthetic of early iconic computer games like PacMan to communicate the “over-simplification” of rich cultural material like Banshees and St Patrick’s day which explore Ireland’s socio-cultural identity. As the agency’s creative director, John Hozier-Byrne explains:
“How can you tell a complex story in the simplest narrative form? Banshees: The Game was a fascinating exercise in exploring how you can reimagine an amazing story and tell it in a new and unexpected way.”
Overall, I think that this game is a really exciting and interesting example of utilising a simple, whimsical concept to create an enhance an existing narrative. I think that the designers incorporation of visual elements inspired by contextual references like early video games. As I begin to develop a digital product which focuses on emulating period accurate documents, this was a useful project to explore as it highlights how this method effectively immerses the user in the narrative.
In class, we were tasked with creating a style tile which displays this projects visual grammar. This style tile will provide a direction for the aesthetic and identity of my website or e-Book. This exercise helped evolve the content I had marked up on Figma; utilising elements like colour, typography and a consistent theme of images to reflect the narrative.
tasks
using typeface, layout, colour for this phrase