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INTRODUCTION

Marvel Studios asked our team at Perception to design several interfaces seen throughout Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. This film is full of intense action and beautiful storytelling, and our designs aimed to mimic both of these aspects. Our team conceptualized interfaces seen both during the film and in the post-credits scene.

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Hacker Hand-Scan Technology

Background
In the film, Shang-Chi is attempting to escape an underground garage. He has hijacked a car from the organization he’s trying to escape from. The car has been hacked to require a scan of the hand of someone within the organization in order to open the exit doors to the bunker. Without the handprint, Shang-Chi won’t be able to escape and the doors will remain closed.

We designed the hand-scan interface seen on the center stack of the vehicle that Shang-Chi is driving. This scene is fast-paced and suspenseful. Therefore, our design needed to be easily legible and clear to the audience, so they could understand the task that needed to be performed in the midst of all of the action.

Research
The car that Shang-Chi steals from this organization is a BMW, so we based our designs around what could inherently exist in a BMW. We were sent BMW design guidelines and screens that would typically be presented on the car’s center stack. Normally, navigation and car functions would be displayed on this screen. However, our brief was to create a hidden feature that has been hacked into this BMW in order to open and close the exit to this bunker.

Entry Alert Concepts

Despite our feature being a unique piece of technology that does not exist within a BMW naturally, we still tried to remain true to BMW’s design sphere. Our goal was to make this software seem as if it could realistically be seen inside of a BMW. We stuck with traditional colors seen inside of a BMW, as well as kept details that are included in the center stack, such as the white divider bar and tabs seen at the top of the screen.

Hand Scan Biometrics Concepts

Final Design
The final design was based in touch screen technology and biometric scans mixed with traditional BMW screen typography and color patterns. The hand and its function indicators are the focal point of the interface in order for both the characters and the audience to understand what actions must be performed in the middle of intense action.

Entry Alert Concepts

03

Captain Marvel’s Alert

In a post-credit scene at the end of the film, Shang-Chi is seen discussing the power of the rings with Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner via hologram communication. During this discussion, Captain Marvel receives an urgent alert telling her that she must leave. Our team designed the alert interface that Captain Marvel looks at in this scene.

We created different interfaces for this, ranging in size and color. We tested out this design with different looks, like some that are more “alien tech” that could originate from a different planet with a language we couldn’t understand, and others that are more based in Earth’s technology.

Ultimately, our design looked a bit more based on Earth technology. Red was the chosen color for this design in order to depict the urgency of this alert.

Shang-Chi - Captain Marvel Alert Flat

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Bruce Banner’s Interface

We designed the interface Bruce Banner is interacting with to be hologram based with functions to perform science and research. It has a look and feel that is in line with Bruce Banner’s character and technology that he has used in the past.

Shang-Chi Bruce Banner Interface Flat

CONCLUSION

It was an honor to collaborate with Marvel Studios on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Being able to create interfaces for many different characters was a blast for our team. Not only were we able to conceptualize a handful of interfaces, but our team also designed the Main on End title sequence for this film as well!

Be sure to check out that sequence in our Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Main on End title sequence case study!