MakeMake Welcomes Master Designer Alex McDowell, RDI

Jul. 14, 2026

MakeMake is proud to announce Alex McDowell, RDI, as Director of the studio’s newly formed Narrative Design Department. Alex joins Kate Berry who now serves as Managing Director of Narrative Design.

Since 1975, McDowell has applied narrative design across music video, feature film, advertising, interactive media, opera, and industry. He has served as Professor of Cinematic Practice and is Endowed Chair in Production Design at the USC School of Cinematic Arts since 2012, where he teaches World Building and Narrative Design. Widely recognized as the originator of world-building as a narrative design system, McDowell has shaped how stories are conceived, structured, and realized across media.

At MakeMake, McDowell will work from the earliest stages of development, collaborating with writers, producers, artists, and directors at the point of inception to establish narrative design frameworks that guide projects throughout the studio. The Narrative Design Department will address the complexity of Re-enchantment as a core philosophical driver of storytelling, with narrative design serving as the connective tissue across disciplines, platforms, and technologies.

McDowell founded a design studio in 1975 at the origin of the punk music movement - creating visual identities for its earliest bands before gaining critical acclaim in 1980 with Iggy Pop's Soldier album, followed by the artist’s early, evocative music videos. He went on to become a close collaborator of directors Tim Pope and Peter Care, creating world-driven music videos capturing The Cure in an English cupboard, Depeche Mode at the Berlin Wall, Queen in Munich, and Neil Young in California. His music video work also includes iconic projects for Michael Jackson, ZZ Top, Aerosmith, and Sade, as well as the indelible sets of Madonna’s “Express Yourself” and “Vogue.”

A defining artistic presence at pivotal cultural moments in film, McDowell’s first feature, The Lawnmower Man (directed by Brett Leonard), became the first film to use virtual reality, developed in consultation with NASA researcher Scott Fisher. His subsequent production design work spans landmark films for directors including Steven Spielberg (Minority Report, The Terminal), Terry Gilliam (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), Anthony Minghella (Breaking and Entering), Zack Snyder (Man of Steel, Watchmen), Tim Burton (Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), David Fincher (Fight Club), Timur Bekmambetov (Mercy), Wes Anderson, and the Wachowskis.

Beyond film, McDowell designed the first robot opera, Death and the Powers, with composer Tod Machover, premiering at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo for the Prince of Monaco. His world-building work has also extended in brands including Levi’s, Converse, Nike, Pepsi, Revlon, Sony, Coca-Cola, and Chanel, and in games for Ubisoft, Tencent, and Absurd. Over recent years he has brought that world-building practice to corporate futures, large-scale urban design and to Indigenous Futures work. In recognition of his impact on design and culture, he was named a Royal Designer for Industry in 2006—an honor limited to 200 UK designers.

McDowell said:

“In MakeMake, I recognize the opportunity to fulfill the vision of a production, entertainment, and media studio that is genuinely pushing the possibilities of a constantly evolving media environment even as older industrial systems fall away. At this stage in my career, I don’t see anyone better prepared to adapt, provoke, and redesign storytelling than Angus [Wall] and MakeMake. I see no greater opportunity to collaborate on reshaping the human narrative in all its forms.”

 

Angus Wall, MakeMake’s Founder and CEO added:

“Alex is one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. He is behind some of the most enduring worlds in modern storytelling, and I have held a deep admiration for him since we met at Propaganda Films many decades ago. We have remarkably aligned ideas about the future of media, so working together on making those ideas a reality is the fulfillment of a lifelong goal. I am thrilled and honored to be working with him again. His punk spirit lights everything he does.”