Creative Perspectives on Immersive Experiences
Creative Perspectives on Immersive Experiences
Immersive entertainment has expanded dramatically from cinemas to theme parks, museums and, now, mixed reality. And as the TEA Global Attractions Attendance Report shows, demand for in-person experiences remains strong worldwide.
So, what actually makes an experience immersive and memorable? We spoke with Wētā Workshop’s Co-founder Richard Taylor, Head of Creative Leadership Rik Athorne, and Experience Designer Mercia Abbott to explore the creative principles behind worldbuilding, emotion, and collaboration.
Immersion is Both Escape and Belonging
Richard thinks of immersive experiences as ‘a fantastical escape’. He says it is always Wētā Workshop’s hope that someone who visits one of our immersive experiences can cast off the constant pressure of their daily life and be swept away by an experience that captivates them so fully their mind can singularly focus on the experience around them.
“Our objective is to truly liberate people from the daily grind and share with them experiences that can touch their hearts, inform their minds, and lift their spirits.”
One of Rik’s earliest memories is watching Spielberg’s E.T., and something about it stuck. This moment opened him up to a world of imagination and storytelling. Growing up, he loved movies, adventure stories, and dreamed of going to Disney World. Art and creativity have always been around him, and to some degree, that’s an example of what immersive means to him.
“It’s about being within a construct of something that is bigger than you, where the opportunity for wonder and awe can exist, allowing you to be transported to another place that is different from your usual day,” he says.
Mercia also frames immersive experiences as being a part of something bigger. For her, it isn’t just about what surrounds her, but about how deeply something resonates. She defines this as the point where a visitor stops observing and starts feeling part of the world. This could be through emotion, atmosphere, story logic, or even stillness.
“Sometimes I think the most immersive moments are the quietest ones where the space gives you just enough to lean in and complete the experience yourself,” she says “It's balance.”
Worldbuilding: Finding the Big Idea and the Rules
For Richard, world building is always about finding the "grand idea". Before he even begins deep research, or thinks about how the experience is designed, he searches for the overarching idea that is original, impactful, inspiring and memorable.
“If the idea can be found, everything else will start to fall into place because you now have a pennant that you can rise above your head, which everyone can follow knowing the mission and vision at hand.”
Rik finds the best way to start is to gently immerse himself into the subject matter. By exploring the breadth of the subject before diving deeper into the detail, this allows him to observe a wider spectrum.
“I think of it like flying over a realm of content, looking down from above, and seeing how it all connects. Once you have a good enough understanding of this ‘content realm’, you can start to piece together a unique creative ecosystem.”
From here, the creative framework comes into focus: the iconic, distinct, intimate and epic elements that allow for a big idea to galvanize all start to appear. Much like Richard, he believes once you have these guiding principles, you can then start to define a unique approach to the narrative world you wish to create.
The narrative is critical for Mercia, who focuses on grounding the experience, understanding the logic of the world. She explores ideas spatially, mapping movement, sequence, and emotional rhythm, allowing them to evolve through iteration and layered thinking, with visuals used to test and resolve the design.
Before thinking about what something looks like, she tries to understand how it behaves: the themes at play, what emotional tone it carries, and how a visitor is meant to move through it. That becomes the experience logic.
From there, it expands outward into spatial storytelling: how moments are revealed, where compression and release happen, and how attention is guided.
“The goal is to create a world that feels internally consistent, so that when a visitor steps into it, they instinctively understand how to exist within it,” she says.
Memory is Emotion
Rik believes there’s only one real measure that makes an immersive experience memorable, and that’s how it made you feel. Did the experience have a profound impact on you? And if it did, was that feeling powerful enough to go share your experience with someone else and tell them about it? Was that experience meaningful enough that the memory of it lasts for the rest of your life?
“When creating ideas for an experience, I like to think on those levels,” says Rik. “Whether the feeling from that experience is inspired, happy, sad, disbelief, awestruck, enlightened even. Will this experience embed itself into the fabric of one’s mind? That is the goal.”
Similarly for Richard, it is the emotion that one takes from the experience long after you leave. A profound understanding, or a deep and emotional connection to the subject matter being shared.
“This does not mean the experience has to be highly educational or overtly sincere - it could just be something built for fun, but that fun still needs to be delivered with enough depth of intent that your guest keeps the memories with them for as long as possible,” explains Richard.
For Mercia, the most lasting moments are those that give visitors agency, invite reflection, or create emotional recognition. Within complex environments, clarity becomes critical - a clear experiential thread must guide the visitor, whether through narrative, spatial progression, or interaction. She also highlights that a big challenge is designing for difference.
“Every visitor engages in their own way,” she says, “so the experience must be structured to support multiple pathways while maintaining a strong, cohesive intent.”
Collaboration Brings it to Life
Rik has a strong belief that for any creative project to be successful, there must be an understanding of the fundamental principles of collaboration. Whether that’s internally working as cross-disciplinary teams, or in a client-vendor relationship.
Take the Yin Yang concept, for example. From a creative industries perspective, on one side you have the Yin, which is the creative and artistic, and on the other you have the Yang, which is the commercial production. Maintaining balance is vitally important for any creative project to succeed.
However, to Rik, the most important element of the Yin Yang is the ‘s’ bend down the middle. “It is the tension line that binds the two forces together,” he explains “This is where the potential for project brilliance and shared success exists.”
Richard reflects on how fortunate it is that Wētā Workshop has a diverse array of talent and capabilities within the design and manufacture infrastructure of the company. There are 11 unique disciplines operating across almost every aspect of practical manufacture, with an incredibly symbiotic interface between everyone.
This allows an extraordinary level of cross-collaboration where a multi-disciplinary creative approach can be brought to an immersive experience.
“We can collaborate on a fluid range of ideas, techniques and technology, helping to innovate new methodologies while drawing on handcrafts and tried-and-true techniques,” he says. “I find it truly inspiring having access to such a diverse and passionate group of creatives that can imagine, invest, make and create almost anything that is asked of them.”
Mercia's role fits in connecting those perspectives through a clear experience logic aligning intent, guiding decisions, and ensuring the world holds together as a cohesive system. It’s not about handing ideas over, but about building them collectively, where each discipline actively informs and evolves the work.
“Our cross-disciplinary approach is what allows us to move seamlessly between physical and digital, emotional and technical,” She says. “The result is work that feels resolved, cohesive, and ultimately alive.”
For creators and operators alike, the takeaway is simple. Build a strong idea and coherent world, design for feeling, and let collaboration do the work of making it real.
What are your thoughts on immersive experiences?
We’d love to know what you think and are always happy to share our thoughts. Feel free to get in touch with Wētā Workshop by using the button below.