Worldbuilding is a crucial part of filmmaking. Fictions Design encompasses the development of environments, icons, signage, language systems, and all aspects of visual culture.
Thoughtful worldbuilding enables the creation of characters that can believably exist in any imagined world, and stories that feel rooted and can thus resonate with audiences.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu
Worldbuilding
I was invited to join the post-production design team at MPC London, working alongside vfx supervisor Ryan Jefferson Hays and designer Paul Hunt, to develop the worldbuilding for Ryme City, the fictional location of the live-action film, Pokémon Detective Pikachu.
I designed over 140 brands, from corporate banks to noodle takeaways, to help populate the city and create a believable environment for the story and characters to live in.
These designs supplemented the street-level design work that had already been completed for the film’s shoot by the production design team.
I designed over 140 brands, from corporate banks to noodle takeaways, to help populate the city and create a believable environment for the story and characters to live in.
These designs supplemented the street-level design work that had already been completed for the film’s shoot by the production design team.
Initial concepts for Clifford Industries, Ryme City Transit, and Clifford News Media.
Language Systems
I also created two language systems to replace the existing ‘Unovian’ character set used in the anime. As well as drawing from Japanese typefaces I also took inspiration from Hebrew, Sinhalese, Thai and Arabic. To give us variety and flexibility there were 10 different editable styles and they formed the basis of many of the logos we designed.
For the second language I used a base-14 number system — because most Pokémon have three fingers on each hand and four toes on each foot.
For the second language I used a base-14 number system — because most Pokémon have three fingers on each hand and four toes on each foot.
This showreel includes final logo designs by both Paul Hunt and myself.
Production Design
In addition to the flat graphic assets it was also important to provide guidance and visuals for building and compositing the assets into the final shots.
Some scenes needed last minute design assets created, for example this newspaper front page.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu
2019
Director: Rob Letterman
Production Company: Legendary Pictures, The Pokémon Company
2019
Director: Rob Letterman
Production Company: Legendary Pictures, The Pokémon Company
VFX Supervisor: Erik Nordby
MPC VFX Supervisor: Pete Dionne
MPC Creative Director: Ryan Jefferson Hays
MPC Producers: Sandra Eklund, Tomek Zietkiewicz
Design: Paul Hunt, Manuel Sepulveda
Animation: Jessica Gaynor, Ingrid Tsy
Concept Art: Charles Downman
MPC VFX Supervisor: Pete Dionne
MPC Creative Director: Ryan Jefferson Hays
MPC Producers: Sandra Eklund, Tomek Zietkiewicz
Design: Paul Hunt, Manuel Sepulveda
Animation: Jessica Gaynor, Ingrid Tsy
Concept Art: Charles Downman
Sci-Fi Semiotics
Graphic Systems for Science Fiction
An ongoing, self-initiated project exploring the aesthetics of science fiction.
By combining typography, symbols and my own imagery to create a series of production concepts, I aim to evoke stories set in other and future worlds.
Wordmarks
Semiotics
Typographics
Production Concepts
More design work at optigram.net
Bio and other projects at manuelsepulveda.com