THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
Creative Director
Brand Strategy · Franchise Development · Creative Direction · Visual Identity · Immersive Experience · Product Design · Entertainment Marketing
THE BRIEF
Reimagining the universe. Without losing the plot.
Few science-fiction franchises have left a cultural footprint quite like Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Across books, radio, television, film, and decades of devoted fandom, its universe has inspired countless interpretations—yet never established one definitive visual identity.
When Prodigal Entertainment and its partners set out to relaunch the beloved franchise across live entertainment, games, consumer products, and new storytelling experiences, I was brought on as Creative Director to help shape a cohesive creative vision for its next chapter.
The challenge was deceptively complex: honor an iconic literary universe while making room for fresh interpretations of its characters, worlds, and wonderfully absurd philosophy.
How do you make something feel immediately recognizable and entirely new?
We started in the mind of Douglas Adams with the audiobook.
THE PROCESS
The future isn't what it used to be.
Our starting point wasn't a color palette or logo. It was a philosophy. Douglas Adams built a universe around the absurdity of human self-importance, the radical possibilities of seeing the world from unfamiliar perspectives, and the notion that even the most ridiculous realities must obey their own internal logic. These ideas became the foundation of our creative approach.
We established guiding principles rooted in perspective, satire, imaginative rigor, and a healthy distrust of anything taking itself too seriously. Visually, the challenge was equally exciting. Adams imagined the future from the vantage point of the 1970s. Today, we inhabit a world increasingly resembling the one he satirized.
So we asked ourselves: What does satirical science-fiction retro-futurism look like when we're already living in the dark future?
The playing cards evolved into tarot cards…
A plushie Marvin, the Paranoid Android.
IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE. The franchise's most ambitious physical expression took shape at London's Riverside Studios, where The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Live transformed Douglas Adams' universe into an immersive theatrical adventure. My creative direction contributed to the broader visual and experiential world of the production, working across disciplines with a large team to help carry our franchise vision into sets, characters, environments, and performance.
Some early renderings and prototypes…
Hitchhiker’s Live! An immersive theatrical experience.
We had a lot of fun with this one!
Expanded into merchandise to begin to re-introduce beloved characters from the Hitchhiker’s universe - starting with a deck of interconnected playing cards in collaboration with card artist Jack Brutus Penny.