Overview

When designing the initial shots for my

chosen city, Leonia, I wanted the

exterior to be daunting, to tower over

the viewer and emit a certain sense of

intimidation. To get this aesthetic I

looked into specific landscapes and

structures from both the real world and

movies where I felt the effect had been

achieved. This included shots from “Toy Story”, “Monsters Inc”, “The Lord of the Rings” and the “Harry Potter” series.

The Evolution Of Man

The City of Leonia initially struck me as a

painstakingly modern city with little

restraints in terms of designs, which got me

thinking, how did they achieve this level of

modernism? Was it in small stages? Or huge

leaps? I chose to believe that the city took

daily steps to achieve the grand designs,

which lead me to the famous Evolution of

Man image. I found this perfectly illustrated

the design of Leonia that was swimming

around my head, both in meaning and at

first glance. I wanted Leonia to feel

overpowering, yet with the „thrown away‟

steps it took to get there in the foreground

of my designs, almost laying the structure

for what the city has become.

Coral Structures

The idea of having lower levels to the

city lead me to thinking about the

way the bottom half of the city would

look and I found this design in coral

structures. I felt that having a different

aesthetic for the two ends of the city

would help me establish a more visual

hierarchy amongst the civilians of

Leonia, rather like the idea of different

districts from “The Hunger Games”. It seemed obvious that certain groups

amongst the city simply wouldn‟t be

able to afford to upgrade their

lifestyle every day and so would be

forced to live amongst the forgotten

junk of yesterday.