Feature: 'Hayes’ Day Out - Talking Xbox 360 at the London Design Museum'

In today's main Gamasutra feature, Iain Simons recounts a recent lecture at the London Design Museum from Jonathan Hayes, Design Director for the Xbox 360, in which he shares the process and lessons learned from creating the look of Microsoft's next-gen console. In this extract from the feature, Hayes is discussing the way that the physical design of Microsoft's next-gen console shifted from the relatively bulky frame of the first Xbox: "Hayes went on to discuss the shift in tone from the original Xbox to 360, highlighting the quantum differences in approach the team were now taking. “The first Xbox was convex - it was full of energy that could barely be contained.” This maps back to the original brand identity, “...a slash in the ground, with mysterious dark energy coming out at you…” Hayes illustrated this with a slide of the Hulk bursting through a plate glass window toward the camera. Laughter from the audience – “That's pretty much how I felt about the original.” Keeping with filmic references, Hayes explained that 360 wasn't about sheer muscle mass; but focused power (cue a slide of Bruce Lee). Again, he mapped this to the brand identity. “The new Xbox 360 logo is more refined, it's still a cut, but it's a cut into a world that you can see and access. It's not coming to get you, it's inviting you in.”" You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).