In this site-specific experience and talk, Gerred Blyth will use the fantastic video surfaces of the Ministry of Sound to take the audience on a journey that will explore the shared grammar between our many professional fields.
Gerred is in a unique position to take you on this journey. He has enjoyed a 25 year tandem career.
By Day: Head of Product Design for ASOS, Product Director for the biggest pan African eCom platform and most recently C-Suite for the US’s leading Experience Gift destination.
By Night: Member of the band Public Service Broadcasting and creative producer of “a live orchestra in a holographic world” – the Supernova Spectaculars.
In this experiential presentation, you will see the fabric of the Ministry of Sound come to life to the sounds of Public Service Broadcasting – and then we explore the concepts together.
What can crafted user-experience journeys teach us about designing immersive spectacles? And what can show design teach us about building products used by millions?
As “Mr B” from Public Service Broadcasting, Gerred has helped create and perform immersive, story-driven shows at venues ranging from the Royal Albert Hall and Glastonbury to the Natural History Museum, Caerphilly Castle, and the British Library.
Touring together in Europe, US, Asia and Australia/NZ, these aren’t just concerts – they are carefully designed experiences, built around pacing, anticipation, emotional peaks, and shared moments of wonder.
Although they use different language, these Public Service Broadcasting shows relied on the same principles we obsess over in product design: onboarding, narrative flow, attention management, friction, reward, and memory-making.
Then we reverse the lens.
Drawing on experience in e-commerce, interactive design, and product leadership, we look at how UX frameworks, research methods, and iteration cycles can surprisingly inform how live shows and large-scale spectacles are conceived.
At first glance, the parallels are obscure. But scratch the surface, and you’ll discover a shared experience grammar that may permanently change how you think about experiences – whether they live on a stage or on a screen.