THE QUEEN’S PLATINUM JUBILEE
// THE QUEEN’S JUBILEE
PLATINUM PARTY AT THE PALACE.
BUCKINGHAM PALACE // 2022
We transformed Buckingham Palace with an array of projection visuals for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
In January 2022, the BBC commissioned us to form part of the core design team to create the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations at Buckingham Palace. We were commissioned to conceptualise, design and create the visuals for the Platinum Party at the Palace, including the projection-mapped visuals for Buckingham Palace, LED screen visuals and broadcast graphics for the entire celebratory weekend.
We made it our mission to create the most incredible show the Palace had ever seen and pushed the ideas, design and tech in every way possible to create the most incredible experience for thousands of people around the Palace and millions worldwide.
It was an opportunity to let our imaginations go wild, and we’re so grateful to the BBC and the various artists we worked with for giving us this creative freedom to bring the Palace to life.
We wanted to tell our Queen’s story, raise environmental awareness, connect the nation (and world) and throw the biggest party at the Palace!
CREATIVE VISION & ART DIRECTION
Our creative vision and art direction captured the spirit of HM the Queen, her vibrance, strength and positive influence through a balance of classical-meets-contemporary. We took great inspiration from HM’s styling over the decades. We utilised a range of design styles to create many moments throughout the show, combining hand-made and artistic aesthetics with big 3D moments that gave the illusion of depth on the Palace.
There were so many memorable moments within the show:
We created a luscious garden that grew all over the Palace architecture, we poured liquid platinum over the Palace with Alicia keys, we collaborated with Sky Magic on a drone-and-projection-show for Sigala and Ella Eyre, we swung disco balls around the Palace for Diana Ross, we dug into an incredible amount of archive footage for the Prince of Wales’s speech and for Duran Duran we peeled back 70 layers of wallpaper from the Palace inspired by Her Majesty’s amazing styling over the years.
LIVE SHOW.
BROADCAST.
MUSIC.
NARRATIVE.
We also designed and created the broadcast graphics for the weekends’ BBC programmes including the Platinum Party, Platinum Pageant and Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral. We created a sophisticated introductory title sequence which featured a fly through the metallic 3D logo and archive footage telling the story of the Queen’s reign.
““I ADORE WORKING WITH YOU ALL AND I HOPE TODAY YOU BASK IN THE GLOW OF INCREDIBLE WORK. YOU ARE THE BEST.”
- MARK SIDAWAY, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER”
TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION
From a technical perspective, we utilised a vast range of tools, techniques, software and hardware to create the show, from scanned textiles and hand-drawn illustrations to 2D and 3D motion design and VFX in rendered and real-time software.
We utilised the power of Unreal Engine and Notch to create many of the bigger 3D renders to combat large resolution render times and develop a level of flexibility.
Big ideas came with immense technical challenges but through our own pre-visualisation software built with Unreal Engine we were able to see our visuals on the Palace from multiple perspectives, light and weather conditions. Once we arrived at the palace, it was almost a case of pressing go.
This also gave us a tool for collaboration with Julia Knowles (camera director), as we could take the positions of the broadcast cameras way in advance of the show and create depth-illusion moments that worked from specific broadcast camera locations.
'13.4 MILLION PEOPLE TUNED INTO WATCH THE LIVE SHOW, FOLLOWED BY MILLIONS OF STREAMS AND HUNDREDS OF PUBLICATIONS COVERING THE SHOW. THE SHOW WAS AN INCREDIBLE COLLABORATION BETWEEN MANY GREAT CREATIVE MINDS AND WE HAD THE HONOUR OF WORKING WITH PEOPLE AT THE TOP OF THEIR GAME IN SOUND, STAGING, PRODUCTION, DRONES AND LIGHTING'
Working with Nigel Catmur (lighting designer), we created a beautiful synergy between lighting, projection and LED. We also made many ‘architectural lighting looks’ on the Palace with our projection, rendering virtual lighting within our 3D software to then project onto the Palace. This was used mostly during the show from 8 PM – 9:30 PM before the full projection show began to give a little life and sparkle to the Palace. Nigel could then control colour and intensity to suit his lighting through these earlier moments of the show.
““PLATINUM PARTY AT THE PALACE..THE QUEENS’S CONCERT WAS VISUALLY SPECTACULAR, SCATTERSHOT AND TOTALLY BONKERS... FURTHER INTO THE EVENING, THE VISUAL SPECTACLE GOT MORE AND MORE AMBITIOUS.”
- THE EVENING STANDARD”
We were honoured to work closely with the BBC team including Mark Sidaway, Cheryl Ko Pearson, Claudia Bishop and many more, along with the various artist teams, who were all a joy to develop the ideas with collectively.
We love creating visuals at scale for large audiences and this experience really showed how the power of performance and expression can inspire a nation.
// TEAM
CLIENT: BBC STUDIOS
CREATIVE DIRECTOR & FOUNDER: TOM BAIRSTOW
PRODUCER: ALICE RYLAND
LEAD DESIGNER: LYDIA CAPLAN
LEAD TECHNICAL ARTIST: FLORIAN LECOQ
MOTION DESIGNER: EMILE FREDERICK
MOTION DESIGNER: SEAN BONE
MOTION DESIGNER: LIAM GILHEANY
MOTION DESIGNER: DANA COULING
MOTION DESIGNER: DAN RICHARDS
MOTION DESIGNER: DAN WISE
MOTION DESIGNER: DUNCAN TUNE
MOTION DESIGNER: JAMIE MARSHALL
MOTION DESIGNER: ARTHUR BROOME
MOTION DESIGNER: LUCA BRENNA
