Ric Lipson of Stufish Entertainment Architects worked as set designer for U2’s Innocence + Experience tour, sharing duties with Es Devin, but noting of his own UK-based team that "we try to avoid personal credits as it is a team effort at Stufish. I was listed on the creative team for Stufish because I was personally involved with the creation, but the studio is referenced in the creative team credit and also listed later in the companies involved with the show."
Working under the creative direction of longtime U2 collaborator Willie Williams, like Devlin, Lipson came on board in early 2013, when the late Mark Fisher was still alive. "I was brought in by Mark, having worked with Willie on a few other shows, and we started designs," says Lipson. "At first we were planning to do three separate nights and designed a stage that would transform into different formations for the three shows. We worked on a lot of ideas even before Mark passed away, but then, with the subsequent delay in the tour, we developed a lot of idea over the end of 2013 and through 2014 until arriving at the final design at the end of 2014."
Lipson notes that the show is based around a strong narrative developed with Willie, Es, the band, as well as other members of the creative team, including musician Gavin Friday and choreographer Morleigh Steinberg. "Once sketch ideas were developed, I would then go back to the Stufish studio to work with my team to make the real scale CAD drawings, animations, and renderings," he says. "Es would then work with her team to take the images and extend the various stylistic and content driven narrative elements into the pictures. Presentations to the band tended to be a hybrid of Stufish/Devlin studios work output. Once the overall design was signed off, Es tended to work with Willie on more of the content and narrative flow of the show, where as we worked with [production manager] Jake Berry and Tait to make sure that all of the detail, material finishes, prototypes and technical delivery was fully worked through.
While the actual renderings were done by Stufish, Lipson notes that Devlin's studio develop them into what he calls "the more artistic imagery that described the narrative. Our animations and renders served to help sell the experience within the whole arena together with the very important understanding of how the screen, and long catwalk and PA, would affect sitelines and how the show could be sold accordingly. Our renderings played a huge part in helping decide how the tickets would work."
The band members' involvement in the creative has really influenced the final show, and Lipson says that some of the ideas of the show narrative from the first meetings have remained constant. "The idea of the lightbulb, the divide, bringing the narrative of the troubles in Ireland, Cedarwood Road where Bono grew up, and the car bombs, all came from ideas from the band," Lipson says. "They were very clear they wanted to break the fourth wall to the audience and concentrate on the intimacy of the arena show to find a new way to get closer to more people."
Exploring themes of growing up in Ireland in the 1970s, the band members wanted to represent the theme of "punk" in the tour design, as well as the idea of a roadway underpass "as a place of danger with its stark electric fluorescent lights," says Lipson. "The ideas for real materials that feel strong and urban whilst not being a pastiche was important. This is where the finishes for the subway lights, and the escalator like ribbed stage floor that has silver and black lines. It was important that the screen could disappear. The [PRG Nocturne] V-Thru product played a huge part in this, but also we developed the whole structure with Tait for the screen to be as see-through as possible with bar grating floor, open tread steps, and the structure and cabling was all carefully thought out to help keep the screen as see though and monolithic as possible. The color yellow arrived quite early as something that U2 have used before, but we wanted to reuse as a branding. Stufish designed the tour logo the U2.ie logo as it is written. This continuous brush stroke of bright yellow formed the logo, which was then branded into the stage surface to explore the idea of the innocence and experience stages. We worked hard with Tait to find a solution that would allow a continuous line of LED lit yellow Plexiglas that would run the logo through the floor. This was very effective and created a very strong aesthetic for the show."
Check out our full coverage, sponsored by SHS Global at our Project In Focus on U2's iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour here, and check back often for continuing updates.