How Do Architects Design Metaverse Experiences?

How Do Architects Design Metaverse Experiences?

How Do Architects Design Metaverse Experiences?

How Do Architects Design Metaverse Experiences? 366 222 Shlomi Ron

With all the recent hype over immersive storytelling, looking at how brands put together production teams, I was wondering how do architects design metaverse experiences?

From a visual storytelling perspective I find this question as a fascinating illustration of how skills get adapted around emerging technologies.

Since the metaverse broke out a year ago, we’ve seen many brands start their own immersive Web3 experiences across various sectors such as virtual real estatefashion and beauty, art, CPG, hospitality, sportswear, and music – to name a few.

As brands put together cross-functional teams to build these branded virtual worlds either on major gaming platforms or on their own Websites, architects have played a key role, bringing their expertise in visualizing 3D structures from the physical world.

However there is one big difference.

On the metaverse, architects design virtual buildings with minimal physical constraints.



As such architects follow video game designers and dream up rich fantasy structures that bring to life the creator’s vision for identity, community and utility.

I was intrigued by the unique journey architects have gone through bringing their deep visual storytelling skills from designing buildings in the real world to – practically – blank canvas immersive experiences and digital twins in the metaverse.

It’s like a 3D building rendering that in the past was only used for planning and simulation purposes, has now found a new use case in the metaverse.

What is Visual Storytelling from
an architect’s perspective?

“It’s about presenting ideas visually, while taking your audience on a journey. It has to be something that they can relate to, it should have depth and it’s also good if it makes them smile.”

-Nicola Rutt
Founding Director
Studio MULTI

To help me unpack this exciting topic I had the great pleasure to speak with Nicola Rutt, Founding Director of Studio MULTI – a multiple perspective architecture firm based in London.

Demo video of The Immersive Kind gallery

Nicola and her team have recently designed The Immersive Kind virtual art gallery (click to experience it yourself) on the Spatial metaverse platform.

Kadine James, the CEO and Founder of The Immersive Kind, said the collaboration has created an “incredible piece of industrial architecture.”

We talked about her career journey, her process for designing a metaverse experience, challenges, project examples, misconceptions, future predictions, her top 3 tips for brands that are looking to develop their own metaverse experiences – and much more.

It’s all in the latest episode of the Visual Storytelling Today podcast.

Watch the full video recording of this interview with lots of illustrative examples:

Need a screen break?
You can also listen to the audio recording of this episode. Subscribe to the Visual Storytelling Today podcast on iTunes,
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What immersive stories would you have an architect help you bring to life?

 

Shlomi Ron

Shlomi Ron is the founder and CEO of the Visual Storytelling Institute, a Miami-based think tank with a mission to bring the gospel of visual storytelling from the world of art to more human-centric and purpose-driven marketing. A digital marketing veteran with over 20 years of experience working both on the agency and brand sides for Fortune 100/500 brands such as Nokia, IBM, and American Express. He started VSI to combine his marketing expertise with his passion for visual stories stemming from his interests in classic Italian cinema and managing the estate of video art pioneer, Buky Schwartz. At VSI, he helps brands rise above the communication noise through visual storytelling consulting, training, and thought leadership. Select clients include Estée Lauder, Microsoft, and Cable & Wireless – to name a few. He currently teaches Brand Storytelling at the University of Miami’s Business School. Thought leader and speaker at key marketing conferences. He is also the host of the Visual Storytelling Today podcast, which ranks in the top 10 best business storytelling podcasts on the Web. His book: Total Acuity: Tales with Marketing Morals to Help You Create Richer Visual Brand Stories. Outside work, he is a nascent bread baker, The Moth fan, and longtime fedora wearer likely to jive with his classic Italian cinema interest.

All stories by: Shlomi Ron

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