The Art Deco World of BioShock
The Art Deco World of BioShock
What makes a city unforgettable? Is it the architecture, the lighting, the signs, the advertisements, or the idea that that city represents?
BioShock is one of the rare video games where all of these things work simultaneously. The game, published in 2007, may have fallen behind technically more advanced productions today; but when it comes to art direction, Rapture is still considered one of the most powerfully designed locations in gaming history. The basis for this lies not only in the successful use of Art Deco aesthetics, but also in the fact that the entire visual system, from architecture to typography, serves the basic idea of the story.
When we look at BioShock from a design perspective, we actually see much more than an underwater city. We are faced with a society created from scratch with its architecture, brands, advertisements, products, propaganda language and graphic design. Rapture doesn't use Art Deco to look pretty. Rapture has to be Art Deco because of the ideology it represents.
And perhaps that's exactly what makes BioShock still so impressive years later.
A Utopia Under the Ocean: Rapture
The story of BioShock begins in 1960. Jack, the main character of the game, reaches a mysterious lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean after a plane crash. The bathyscaphe he finds inside takes him to the depths of the ocean and we encounter Rapture for the first time.
The city's founder, Andrew Ryan, designed Rapture as a place independent of states, religious authorities, and society's control over the individual. He dreams of a society where scientists can research, artists can produce, and entrepreneurs have their own earnings.
The idea we hear in Rapture's first encounter with the player forms the basis of this world: Ryan questions who owns the reward of one's own labor and then gives his own answer.
To the man himself.
But BioShock does not show us a completed utopia.
We come to the wreckage of utopia.
Rapture's once magnificent halls have been torn apart, its businesses abandoned, its corridors flooded, and many of its inhabitants transformed by genetic experimentation. This is why there is a constant contrast in the game's art direction:
Splendor and decay.
This is the first thing that makes Rapture's design extraordinary.
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Why Was Art Deco Such a Right Choice for BioShock?
Art Deco had a major impact on architecture, fashion, graphic design and industrial design, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. Geometric forms, symmetry, strong vertical lines, metallic surfaces, decorative details and admiration for modernization were among the characteristic features of this language.
Even today, buildings such as the Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center in New York are among the symbols of the period's optimism for the future.
Therefore, the use of Art Deco in BioShock's world is not a coincidence.
Andrew Ryan believes in the future.
He believes in the industry.
He believes in human will.
He believes in wealth.
He believes in individual success.
Rapture's architecture conveys the same confidence.
Giant columns, geometric entrances, golden tones, metal surfaces, dramatic sculptures and gigantic structures that make people look small always say the same thing:
A great civilization was established here.
But when the player arrives, this civilization has already collapsed.
So BioShock takes the promise of progress and prosperity that Art Deco has historically held and adds a layer of decay on top of it.
The resulting image is therefore both beautiful and disturbing.
Rapture Isn't Beautiful, It Was Once Beautiful
This distinction is important in understanding BioShock's art direction.
If the locations in the game were designed to be scary from start to finish, Rapture could have turned into a much more ordinary horror game location.
Instead, designers constantly show us remnants of past glory.
Stylish restaurants.
Theatres.
Hotels.
Stores.
Luxury apartments.
Billboards.
Neon signs.
Decorative walls.
Large halls.
Then on top of that comes blood, water, broken furniture, torn down signs and abandonment.
This method is one of the most powerful forms of environmental storytelling.
The game doesn't have to tell us "Rapture has crashed."
The place already says it.
Not an Architectural Decoration in BioShock
In many games, architecture is used to create a beautiful scenery for the player to move through.
In BioShock, architecture is ideological.
It is not necessary to just listen to audio recordings to understand Andrew Ryan's worldview. Just look at the scale of Rapture.
Giant statues, monumental buildings and magnificent halls take individual success to an almost sacred point.
Especially the use of the human figure in architecture is striking. Strong bodies, workers, industrial symbols, and idealized human forms visualize Rapture's idea of “man's creation of his own destiny.”
Here Art Deco occasionally merges with Streamline Moderne, industrial design and the propaganda aesthetics of the period.
After all, Rapture doesn't just mimic the 1930s.
It reinterprets the 1930s dream of the future.
What Does a Graphic Designer See When He Looks at Rapture?
Examining BioShock in terms of graphic design is perhaps as enjoyable as examining its architecture.
Because there is a communication design on almost every wall in Rapture.
Posters, signs, advertisements, product packaging, guidance systems, store identities, neons, propaganda messages and typography create the visual character of the city.
What's particularly striking here is that not all graphs look the same.
Rapture does not consist of a single brand.
There are brands within Rapture.
This is a very important world-building detail.
The language of a cosmetic brand and the language of a gun manufacturer are different. The sign of an entertainment venue and the packaging of a scientific product are different. However, we feel the design DNA of the same period in all of them.
This is exactly what a real city looks like.
It is consistent but not uniform.
Typography is One of the Voices of Rapture
Geometric and decorative display characters have an important place in the typographic world of BioShock. Capital letters, strong contrasts, vertical compositions and letterforms reminiscent of the Art Deco period are constantly encountered.
Typography works with architecture, especially in signage.
The text does not look like it was added to a surface later; It becomes part of the building.
This is an extremely important approach in terms of environmental graphic design.
When the sign is the last thing considered when designing a space, it often feels like a "logo is put on the building".
In Rapture, architecture and graphic design act as two layers of the same world.
That's exactly what a good physical brand experience should do.
Rapture's Advertisements Tell Us a Lot About Society
BioShock's advertising designs are not only used to create a retro atmosphere.
It explains what kind of a consumer society Rapture is.
Plasmid advertisements are the best examples of this.
An extraordinary technology that can genetically alter the human body is marketed in Rapture almost like an ordinary consumer product.
Be more beautiful.
Be stronger.
Change yourself.
Transforming into a better version of yourself.
Language that is surprisingly similar to the personal transformation rhetoric used in today's cosmetics, wellness and technology advertisements.
And this is where BioShock's design turns into satire.
We know how dangerous a product is.
But the packaging is nice.
The ad is attractive.
The slogan is strong.
This is where the dark side of advertising design emerges:
Good communication can also make a bad idea seem appealing.
Plasmid Packaging: Science Becomes a Consumer Product
The visual design of plasmids is particularly worth examining.
Normally, we might expect genetic modification technology to have a cold, laboratory-based visual identity.
BioShock instead turns the technology into a consumer product.
Bottles.
Machines.
Advertisements.
Mascots.
Slogans.
Branded product names.
A scientific revolution turns into a product that can be sold in the supermarket.
This is one of the cleverest examples of Rapture's capitalist structure being depicted through design.
There is no need to give the player a long economics lesson.
We put money into the machine and buy superhuman strength.
The message is already understood.
Even the Vending Machine Has Character
Vending machines in BioShock are not just interfaces that provide ammunition or health items to the player.
They have voices.
It has graphics.
They have brands.
It has animations.
They have their own personalities.
These small details reinforce the feeling that Rapture has a truly commercial ecosystem.
We see this approach often in modern game design, but BioShock is one of the early and strong examples of placing it at the center of the narrative.
When you place a user interface within the game world, the player stops using the menu.
He's starting to interact with the world.
Big Daddy: The Power of Silhouette Design
If we ask which is the most iconic design of BioShock, the answer would probably be Big Daddy.
Giant diving suit.
Round metal cap.
Small lights in front.
Heavy steps.
Giant drill.
One of the most successful points in Big Daddy's design is its silhouette.
If you can still recognize a character just by showing it as a black shape, one of the most important stages of character design has been successfully solved.
Big Daddy is exactly such a character.
Moreover, design is not just aesthetic.
Suitable for the underwater world.
Industrial.
Heavy.
Protectionist.
Threatening.
And strangely emotional at the same time when seen with the Little Sisters.
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Good character design can make us feel what the character is without explaining it.
Big Daddy does this perfectly.
Little Sister and Visual Contrast
The presence of a small child figure next to Big Daddy creates a conscious visual contrast.
Big and small.
Metal and skin.
Strong and fragile.
Slow and moving.
Connotation of darkness and innocence.
Although the two characters have strong designs on their own, they become much more iconic together.
Here we see an important principle from a design perspective:
Contrast creates character.
The same goes for color, typography, photography and brand design.
Not every element needs to be strong. Sometimes one element makes another seem strong.
Color Palette: Rust on a Golden Age
In the color world of BioShock, gold, bronze, dark blue, green, red and rust tones are used extensively.
This palette carries two periods of the narrative at the same time.
Gold and bronze represent past wealth, while greenish and dark tones suggest underwater decay.
Red strengthens the feeling of danger, violence and alarm.
What makes Rapture's color palette interesting, therefore, isn't just that it's "retro."
The palette itself looks like it has aged.
Colors that we could once imagine to be bright are now buried in darkness, moisture and rust.
Water is One of the Design Layers of the Earth
Having Rapture under the ocean isn't just an interesting story idea.
Water itself becomes the game's visual design tool.
Fish are passing behind the glass.
We see other structures from afar.
Water leaks are entering the corridors.
The light is refracted through the water.
The pressure of the outside world is constantly felt.
As a result, the player never feels completely safe.
We know that there is an infinite amount of water behind the wall.
Architecture thus becomes the boundary between protection and threat.
Rapture's Greatest Design Achievement: Environmental Storytelling
BioShock doesn't explain everything to you.
You enter a room.
There is an overturned table.
Blood on the wall.
An item on the ground.
A voice recording.
A broken sign.
And you complete in your mind what it is.
We call this method environmental storytelling.
The reason why it is so powerful in video games is that it prevents the player from being a passive spectator.
In film, the camera determines where you look.
In the game, you see.
You can pass by a poster.
Or you can stop and read.
You can examine the details of a room.
Or you can open the door and continue.
Each player explores the world of BioShock with slightly different intensity.
This reinforces the feeling that Rapture is a place truly explored.
“Would You Kindly?”: The Bigger Question Design Poses to the Player
One of BioShock's greatest strengths is that it questions not only the visual design, but the player's relationship with video games.
We receive tasks throughout the game.
Go somewhere.
Find someone.
Press a button.
Bring something.
Kill a character.
And we do.
Because the game told us.
BioShock turns this habit into part of its story.
What we can say here without spoilers is this: The game questions how often the player actually follows instructions without questioning in an environment where he thinks he has "free will".
This fits perfectly with Andrew Ryan's ideology of individual freedom.
Rapture was founded on freedom.
BioShock asks the player:
Are you truly free?
How to Play BioShock?
BioShock has a structure that is played from a first-person perspective and combines action and RPG elements.
In addition to firearms, the player can use genetic abilities called Plasmids. Different powers such as electricity, fire and telekinesis allow you to interact with the environment and enemies in different ways.
For example, it is possible to apply electricity to enemies in the water or use surrounding objects with different abilities.
This does not base conflicts solely on aiming.
Reading the environment becomes important.
Exploration also plays a big role in the progression of the game. Exploring Rapture's rooms, finding audio recordings, and examining small environmental details allows you to understand the story much better.
Therefore, BioShock is a world to be wandered in, rather than an FPS to be finished quickly.
Where Can BioShock Be Played Today?
One of the easiest ways to experience the series today is BioShock: The Collection. The collection brings together BioShock, BioShock 2, and BioShock Infinite, along with a significant portion of related single-player additional content.
For current platform and version information, it is best to go through the official page of 2K – BioShock, the publisher of the series.
You should not rush, especially if you are going to play the first game not only for the story but also to examine the art direction. Examining the posters, signs, machines, packaging and walls of the spaces makes the design world of the game much more visible.
What Can Designers Learn from BioShock?
The biggest lesson from BioShock isn't that Art Deco looks good.
The main thing is that there is a reason behind the aesthetic choice.
Rapture is Art Deco because Art Deco aligns with the ideas of progress, wealth, industry, and human achievement that the world represents.
Then the story collapses these ideas.
And the design decays with it.
This is also extremely important in brand design.
If we want to use retro design for a brand, it is not enough to just say “retro looks good”.
Why retro?
Why this period?
Why this typography?
Why this color?
Why this architecture?
Why this language of photography?
If the concept can answer these questions, visual identity ceases to be decoration and begins to gain meaning.
That's exactly what BioShock does.
Designing a Good World Is Not Designing a Beautiful World
As Voldi Creative, when we examine BioShock from a design perspective, perhaps the most valuable conclusion emerges here.
Not every corner of Rapture is beautiful.
Some ads are exaggerated.
Some signs are flashy.
Some places are disturbing.
Some are dark.
Some are almost kitsch.
But they all belong to Rapture.
Good art direction does not mean covering everything with the same font, the same color and the same aesthetic. It is to convince us that different elements come from the same culture.
BioShock continues this from architecture to packaging to typography to character design.
Therefore, when we enter Rapture, we do not feel like we are just entering a game map.
We feel like we have entered the ruins of a society that once existed.
And perhaps BioShock's greatest achievement in terms of design lies right here:
We know the Rapture isn't real. But the design language makes us feel like it was once real.
Nur Oğuz