Concept art for the entertainment industry. Graphics for the evocation of imaginary spaces

Abstract

Nowadays, the entertainment industry relies on a massive visual development which employs all kinds of representation modalities and technologies. Especially as regards the design of imaginary worlds or fictional reconstructions of past eras, there is a huge need of prefiguration in order to visualize an idea before it can be transformed into the final ‘on screen’ product. The concept artist is now a key-figure in the industry, who has the complex and hyper creative task to condense the atmosphere, the mood, the feeling and the peculiar features of an environment in a single bi-dimensional image. Such kind of evocative artworks are not far from the scenographic designs in use in theatre ever since the Renaissance, which also exploit the possibilities offered by traditional representation techniques like perspective and value composition. These means are used in an imaginative and illusionistic way to serve the visual prefiguration need and to provide a ‘vision’ of the setting. The paper reflects on the centrality of representation techniques in the conceptualization process of environments for the entertainment industry (videogames, movies, TV shows etc.) and on the similarities between concept art and scenographic design, which are both powerful visual communication tools characterized by the strict, consequential relationship between the concept and the mise-en-scène.