Es Devlin, OBE

Esmeralda Es Devlin, OBE is a true all-round creative force, known for creating kinetic stage sculptures and highly visually dynamic works she has collaborated with many interantional music icons... She’s sent Miley Cyrus down a slide shaped like a tongue, worked with Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Adele, Take That, Kanye West and Beyoncé.

My application process for each project I take on is the same thing, whether the voice in it will ultimately be mine or someone else’s: it’s not like I go, “I’m just doing this for Beyoncé so I don’t really care.” The voices that I work with have such important stuff to say.

The design you see is the tip of the iceberg. But the amount of work you do to provide that tip of the iceberg is what’s important. It will hold you up.

The choices you make in how you allocate any minute of the day are a reflection of your expectations of what you’re going to [achieve] – and I think my expectations are quite high.

She has also created installations at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Art Basel and for the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.

I made one piece for the V&A that the V&A acquired, a nice beautiful, two-foot cube that you peer into and it contains 20 years of my work. They loved it and it’s theirs but it keeps bloody breaking. Even yesterday I wanted to go to the V&A to fix it. When you’re making work that really is a constellation of departments, video, sound, light, it’s a vulnerable meeting point of many things. To keep it all in the air, to keep all that stuff together requires constant maintenance. 

My intention comes through my fingertips, but then goes through the fingertips of six other people in my studio and through their computers. It then goes out to probably another 20 people in another studio who are going to build it – or in the case of Beyonce around 300 people – and so anything I make is still a collaboration. This is true for anyone who makes large-scale things. 

If you look at theatre design work from even 15 years ago there is no documentation. You can’t really photograph the sets because if you don’t do it in the dress rehearsal (and you‘re normally too busy working), every night after that there’s an audience so you can’t photograph it. Now, certainly in the music environment, everything is being well-documented. 

She has been announced as the artistic director of next year’s London Design Biennale, which takes place from 8 to 27 September 2020 at Somerset House.

Devlin is also designing the UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. The Pavilion will be the centrepiece of the UK’s presence at the Expo - highlighting UK expertise in artificial intelligence and the space sector.

In our global, digital era, design can reach instantly across borders and bridge cultures. It can positively alter behaviours and transform societies. Perspectives can be shifted and lives can be improved when new ideas resonate and are adopted by extended communities. Designers have the power to influence and amaze their audiences into making these profound shifts, using the mass networks available to them to resonate practices that will help build a more sustainable future.

To learn more about Es Devlin click and explore any of her media channels and network links in the tool-bar above.