Eric Wong

Thursday 30th September 2021, 6.30pm

Tessa Blackstone Lecture Theatre [0003]

‘Belle: Ryu to Sobakasu no Hime’ (Belle: The Dragon and Freckled Princess) is the new film by the Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda, who founded Tokyo-based Studio Chizu, and was Oscar-nominated for his animated film Mirai. His new film is an animated science-fiction fantasy about a teenage girl in a small town with an alternative virtual existence as a global music icon. The film premiered at the 74th annual Cannes Film Festival. The film will also premier at the BFI London Film Festival on the 7th October. Director Mamoru Hosoda sought out Eric to create a vast and complex setting for the story. In taking on the mammoth digital stage design brief, Eric designed an entire virtual world, known in the film as “U”. This included designing a virtual city for the film, a stadium and a park, as well as app design and interface, environment and colour developments. The film has also partnered with clothing retailer Uniqlo, with the concept artwork being printed on t-shirt designs available to buy worldwide.

Eric is an Architect, illustrator and design tutor. He studied Art and Architecture at the Byam Shaw School of Art, Central Saint Martins. He completed his undergraduate degree at Cardiff University and later graduated with a masters from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Eric was nominated for the RIBA President’s Silver Medal and is a recipient of the Bartlett School of Architecture Medal for outstanding academic achievements in professional performance, the Sir Banister Fletcher Medal for highest marks in Part 2 graduate studies and the Fitzroy Robinson Drawing Prize for best drawings in Part 2 graduate studies. He later completed his Part III professional studies at the University of Cambridge where he qualified as an Architect.