Book Review: Framed Environment Design by Marcos Mateu-Mestre

When actual intelligence is better than artificial intelligence

Framed Environment Design is the fifth instructional art and design book from Marcos Mateu-Mestre, an animation designer and graphic novel artist with more than 30 years of experience in feature animation.

I've featured and reviewed his earlier books (listed below) and they are all fantastic. If you're into concept design, his books should be on the auto-buy list.

• Framed Ink
• Framed Ink Vol 2
• Framed Perspective Vol 1
• Frame Perspective Vol 2
• Framed Drawing Techniques

Many of those books have been translated to other languages too.

This is a 216-page paperback published by Design Studio Press.

This book covers environment design or background art. This book is meant for intermediate concept artists or designers who already have basic knowledge of drawing and creating stuff from imagination. This book is a complement to his earlier books which you should get first before this book.

This book covers in great detail the thought process that goes into designing environment and the world for the purpose of storytelling. The book starts with a general introduction and dives deep into conceptualising various scenes.

The first project is on designing an automotive shop located on the east coast of North America. Not only do you have to design the interior, you also have to design the neighbourhood that includes the facade of buildings, things you see on the street, design of the doors and windows, street lights, and there are all the tools that are needed for car repair, and the paper work and files on the 2nd floor office, the old-school radio on the table, and the huge trash bin outside.

And while designing, you also have to think about how the characters would walk through the scene, how you should frame the scene for storytelling.

And then going through the same workflow, Marcos Mateu-Mestre recreates the automotive shop in a mediterranean location. When you look all the visual details that have to be included, you can tell that designing requires a lot of thought process and is tedious. And you can also tell that Marcos Mateu-Mestre is a professional that's meticulous at going through all the necessary details to make an environment believable.

Other environments that are included in this book are an ancient egyptian settlement with different class segregation, living room, natural landscapes, sci-fi and futuristic tribal.

This book is packed with lots of insights and tips. It's decades of experience condensed into a book that you can purchase easily. This is an instructional book I can recommend easily, and one of the best from 2024.

Oh, if you like this book, also check out Field Sketching for Environmental Designers by Chip Sullivan.

Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.com.au | Amazon.co.jp