New York design firm Yellow Studio, returned as the set designers for the 65th GRAMMY Awards, which took place on 5 February at Los Angeles’s Crytpo.com Arena. Recognising the voices of performers, songwriters, producers, engineers and all music professionals, the GRAMMYs are music’s only peer-recognised accolade and highest achievement. Winners from the ceremony include Harry Styles who won Album of the Year and Beyonce who won a record-breaking 32nd Grammy Award. The 65th GRAMMY Awards marks Yellow Studio’s second time working with the Recording Academy, having previously designed the 2022 GRAMMYs set in Las Vegas.
In their approach to designing the GRAMMYs, Yellow Studio intended to recognise and celebrate the unique and various voices of the global music community. By putting the iconic gramophone centre stage and the focal point of the design, Yellow Studio was determined to facilitate the experience in a monumental way. Since its inception in 1959, the gramophone has become recognised worldwide as a symbol of excellence and outstanding achievement in music. For the 2023 design, it was important for Yellow Studio to give the historical symbol a contemporary and coherent interpretation – marking a moment to be remembered for years to come. The gramophone serves as an entrance and stands as the conceptional hero in the set, not only to celebrate the prestigious award ceremony but also as a grand gesture to the creation of sound and music.
The circular shape of the gramophone continues as a dominant motif in the entire design. Curved stairs cascade from the main stage to the nominee area, treating these areas as one holistic space. Large-scale projection screens allow performing artists to maximise creativity and fill the performance space with their voices and creativity.
Incorporated within their set design, Yellow Studio partnered with world-renowned media artist Refik Anadol, who designed a bespoke AI-driven artwork for the occasion. A pioneer in the aesthetics of machine intelligence, Refik Anadol’s global projects has received several awards and prizes including the Lorenzo il Magnifico Lifetime Achievement Award for New media Art, Microsoft Research’s Best Visual Award, and the D&AD Pencil Award.
Based in New York, Yellow Studio are the world’s leading design studio specialising in production design, creative direction and art direction for television and live events. Over the past two decades, Yellow Studio and its team of creatives have worked on some of the biggest televised events, including the GRAMMY Awards, MTV EMAs, and Video Music Awards.
In December 2022, Yellow Studio was announced as the set designer for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Liverpool on Saturday 13th May. Yellow Studio will join the senior production team to help create, design, and deliver a large-scale and spectacular show to a global audience of over 160 million.
