In the world of SEPHIROT® Interactive Experience, visual art is not just a detail, but a gateway to an immersive and layered universe. Lisa Merletti, illustrator and concept artist, brings this unique aesthetic to life. 

SEPHIROT® Interactive Experience was created to revolutionise how we interact with culture and corporate welfare. The project, currently under development, embraces virtual reality to transform museum visits and educational tours into immersive, engaging, and customisable experiences. It also aims to incentivise participation, well-being, and alignment with company policies for its employees!

Since 2019, Lisa has been shaping the characters, settings, and atmospheres of the SEPHIROT® system with her strokes! She has a portfolio that ranges from the publishing industry to digital illustration, with collaborations ranging from Mondadori to Fanucci Editore, as well as art and commercial projects of various kinds. Her experience makes her the perfect person to tell us what it means to design an interactive world and what challenges she has faced with SEPHIROT® Interactive Experience. Enjoy the interview!

Let’s start with the usual game of our CHRONversations! Imagine being the main character of an RPG, fully customisable by name, appearance, goals, attitude and special abilities. Can you let us know Lisa better through this double of hers?

I’ve been creating characters and role-playing in various RPGs since I was a first-pen chick (quoting), experimenting with different settings, plots and eras, but I think the avatar that best represents me would be that of an esoteric creature immersed in her dimension: she would lead a serene and independent life, in a Gothic-Victorian style abode, surrounded by a few affections, music, books and her feline familiar.

Her special skills would be related to image, visual appearance, and photographic thinking: a shape-shifter capable of instilling visions in her own and others’ minds.

I would call her Lisa, a way of making peace with my name which, when I was younger, I often found inappropriate. Once I grew up, however, I changed my mind: I am convinced it fits me like a glove!

SEPHIROT® has a very distinctive visual identity. What were the main inspirations that guided your stylistic choices?

In the beginning, the intention was to render the dynamic yet refined idea of quick sketches and drafts on a blackboard, which is why the texture of the initial concepts was the rougher and more imprecise texture of a chalk/pencil and the characterisation of the characters was more detailed and realistic.

With the development of SEPHIROT®, the stylisation also evolved and, to date, it appears cleaner and with much more vibrant colours, without however failing to emphasise its visual identity: it is still a union of symbolism and concepts that, in its peculiarity, wants to communicate through impact and immediacy.

Was there a design or visual detail that gave you a harder time than expected, during this last phase of working on the VR experience?

Imagining a character design that deviates from my usual style (more inclined towards gothic illustration): the appearance of the characters, unlike the previous versions of SEPHIROT®, had to be much more simplified and linked, on a symbolic level, to basic geometric shapes.

So I had to work on breaking down and reconstructing, especially mentally, the stereotypical view of a face and make the characterisation of each of the Protagonists convincing through simple solids.

Moreover, as I am no longer very used to visualising environments from a perspective level (something I will have to keep practising!), I put a lot of effort into making the concept boards with a first-person point of view. I must say that, in the end, I found it fun to step out of my comfort zone and came out quite satisfied!

In building an interactive world where there is no unique direction for the gaze, details matter. Is there a small detail hidden in your designs, an easter egg, that you are particularly proud of?

I like to include in each concept an element that refers to the very first version of SEPHIROT®, to its cover, rich in shapes and details halfway between the graphics of a vintage video game and a cubist work!

For example, it is not uncommon to find, in the tables relating to the settings, a stylised eye spying on the scene, perhaps hidden in the foliage of trees, in a detail of a painting hanging on the wall or embedded in the rocky edges of a mountain.

We always like to greet our guests with the same question! If you could collaborate with another artist (living or not) in the field of digital art, who would it be and why? What would you create together?

Hans Ruedi Giger: besides having largely influenced my taste in art, I find his vision timeless, revolutionary at the time when Giger emerged and incredibly relevant and imaginative even today. Immersing oneself within his works, with its intricate and gloomy settings, and its eerie yet fascinating creatures, would be an evocative VR experience!

Images: Art by Lisa Merletti for SEPHIROT® Interactive Experience and SEPHIROT® Fabularum