Image Credit : ©World View Enterprises & PriestmanGoode
Project Overview
World View, the space tourism company, commissioned PriestmanGoode to design aspects of a capsule that will fly passengers to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere under a stratospheric balloon. World View is already taking bookings and deposit payments for its commercial spaceflights, which are scheduled to begin in 2024. With any future concept, virtual or augmented reality environments and brand films are necessary to engage stakeholders during the design process and to build awareness through marketing campaigns, long before the design is realised. As part of a long-term programme for World View, PG created a movie to engage visitors at the prestigious SXSW festival in 2022 where World View was an exhibitor.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Rob Walsh
Mark Timms
Fergus Parsons
Dan Smith
Bartosz Kontek
Alex Doyle
Callum Haskins
Nick Moyes
Luke Foster
Felix Haeffner
Daniel MacInnes
Sarunas Plyskaitis
Kyle Scorgie
Wenda Yang
Libby Howard
Paul Dunkerley
Project Brief
World View want to change the conversation around space tourism by creating a more affordable and accessible opportunity for people to experience space travel and see the Earth from new unprecedented heights.
Voyages will take off from natural and manmade wonders of the world including the Great Barrier Reef, the Serengeti, Norway's Aurora Borealis, the Amazon, the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids of Giza - with the inaugural flight departing from the Grand Canyon. Flights will lift passengers in a pressurised space capsule to nearly 23 miles above Earth, for an unparalleled experience lasting six to eight hours, with lift-off scheduled before dawn. Participants will immerse themselves in the beauty, fragility, history and importance of the areas surrounding each location, and of the Earth itself.
As leaders in visualisation and design services for clients across different modes of transport, PG was commissioned by World View to bring their vision for space travel to life. The brief was to inspire and engage stakeholders and future passengers eagerly awaiting the launch of commercial flights in 2024. The movie is part of a communication toolkit to tell that story.
Project Innovation/Need
Viewing the planet from space is an experience that has been reserved for astronauts who describe the ‘overview effect’ - a sensation of awe that creates an instant and lasting connection with humanity and the beauty of the Earth. World View’s stratospheric space flights will open that possibility to more people. Therefore, in visualising an experience that does not yet exist, the design team needed to capture every detail and to connect to each emotion from pre-boarding to landing, and the total experience across 100,000 feet.
Design Challenge
The World View experience will begin transporting passengers to the edge of space in 2024, therefore visual assets are needed to build anticipation for those counting down to the first flight and to encourage other passengers to reserve their place. The team worked closely with World View to generate renderings and then an animation to convey the emotion and meaning of World View's ambition to revolutionise space travel and make it the most accessible option available. The movie follows the whole journey from boarding, through the onboard experience showing every detail and feature, the visual perspectives, as well as landing, to tell the complete story. Whilst it was important for the PG Visualisation team to convey emotion and meaning, it was also fundamental that the renderings were realistic and technically accurate as part of a process to engage with stakeholders for investment and marketing purposes. The movie was integrated in a physical mock-up of the space capsule at the SXSW event.
Effectiveness
Although design elements and engineering considerations will continue to be refined before the first flight, the visualisation assets created so far have delivered results. Around the time of SXSW, World View signed up its 1,000th customer, making them the most sought-after space tourism operator in the world. The movie, when combined with a physical mock-up of the capsule at SXSW was a winning format with visitors queuing around the stand for the opportunity to immerse themselves in every aspect of the planned experience.
Marketing - Film or Video
This award celebrates creative and innovative visual and audio corporate communications that place an emphasis on design values. Consideration given to the technical, conceptual and aesthetic elements, viewer engagement and message delivery.
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