Design for Reel
To celebrate the Amsterdam studio’s 3rd birthday, we launched Design for Reel, a film screening and panel series that examines cinema through the lens of design. The idea behind this series was to explore how design shapes cinematic storytelling, from title sequences to visual identity, set design, and even the emotional atmosphere of a film. We wanted to create a platform where designers and creatives could dive deep into how these two art forms—film and design—inform and elevate one another.
For the first Design for Reel event, we teamed up with Lab111, an arthouse cinema in Amsterdam, to screen Gaspar Noé’s Enter The Void. This film was the perfect choice to kick off the series because it’s a psychedelic acid trip in which a young man takes a wild journey into the afterlife. Set against the thumping, neon-lit club scene of Tokyo, the film delivers a visceral experience, combining dazzling visuals with a deeply unsettling narrative. Noé’s use of design elements—especially light, colour, and typography—challenges the viewer’s perception and creates a hypnotic, almost otherworldly experience.
During the panel discussion, Russell and I shared our thoughts on the role of design in film, with a special focus on Enter The Void. One of the key moments we highlighted was the film’s opening title sequence, designed by Tom Kan, which is a bombardment of rapid, flashing, neon typography. The titles don’t just introduce the film—they pull the viewer straight into the chaotic, mind-bending world they’re about to enter. It’s a perfect example of how design can set the emotional and psychological tone of a film before the story even begins. The neon titles, paired with a pulsating electronic soundtrack, immediately immerse the audience in the intensity and surrealism of the film’s Tokyo club setting, preparing them for the wild, disorienting journey ahead.
We explored how Enter The Void uses design not only as a visual element but as a storytelling device. The neon, dreamlike visuals of Tokyo’s streets and clubs mirror the protagonist’s out-of-body experience, blurring the lines between reality and the afterlife. The film’s design is integral to its narrative, and we discussed how Noé uses light, colour, and typography to evoke the film’s core themes of life, death, and the unknown.
But we also made it clear during the panel that Enter The Void is not for the faint-hearted. The film delves into some pretty intense and graphic scenes involving sex, drugs, and death, which might be unsettling for some viewers. Noé’s visceral and confrontational style challenges the audience, both emotionally and visually, making the film as much an endurance test as it is a cinematic experience. This boundary-pushing approach to design and storytelling is exactly what makes Enter The Void such a powerful, albeit disturbing, work of art—and why it was the perfect film to launch Design for Reel.