On the Marauder’s Map:

Mira Mina: The architecture of the school is actually represented exactly in the map. So we had the architecture plans from the set designers and we were drawing over the top. So if you look closely inside, you can see that Dumbledore’s office is exactly like it would be in the architecture. It feels really authentic.

Eduardo Lima: We didn’t want the map to look like a Treasure Island map, like rolled with burnt edges. We had to think it through because we knew that the map was to come in other films. We needed to find a clever way to introduce it. There were some technical things as well. We had to do it with a photocopy.

MM: We had to create it with a photocopier in the studio. So we had to find a way that would work practically for us, so that if on the set they needed other 10 tomorrow we could manufacture more quickly.

EL: We needed to do loads of repeats because some of them need to be folded, like Harry has in his back pocket.

On creating designs for the Harry Potter films:

Could you tell us a little bit about the style of the books, your research, other books that inspired you?
Mira Mina: Well this particular book (points to the Dark Art Defense for Beginners book) as you know, Umbridge is trying to put down the children and give them something really childish, so we looked at 1930s children’s books. Even the pages inside are like really basic. In all of our books and designs, we always take something that looks kind of real and then just twist it maybe 10° or 20° - so it feels really familiar to the audience but it has the wizarding world twist to it. That’s what we like to do so that it’s easier to engage with. It’s something that’s important for us, as designers, to understand who the characters are and try and describe their personality with their objects - in the same way that the costume designer might do that with the clothes. We do it with the object.

Eduardo Lima: And the set design of Umbridge’s plates and cups. We did her personal stationery and books, and the Mudbloods pamphlets were pink as well because she liked pink.

MM: This is something that we would do always. Like with Snape’s potions book, you’ll see the handwriting is different from the one I did on the Marauder’s Map or that I did on the acceptance letters because you have to think, “Well, how would Snape write?” and try to imagine what kind of mood he would be in when he is having this intense moment. So it is different way of being a designer than it might be if we were working more commercially outside because we’re really engaging in the story. That’s absolutely fundamental to how we work.

EL: It’s quite fun because we can be Umbridge. We can be Snape. We can be Rita Skeeter. We can be the Weasley twins.

MM: Yeah, there were some bad days, some Umbridge days or Snape days, that were not good.

MM: The other thing about all the things with typography is that it’s something that’s very important to us in terms of communication art - trying to create this sense of a handmade piece. The way we work, we mix computer work with hand work, as well. We never like things to look like they’ve come straight from computer. Typography is our passion. We feel that that’s a way of really communicating well a message because it has such a personality. So whether the personality is like the Ministry of Magic telling you what to do or whether it’s the beautiful History of Magic delicate font in gold with parchment. Hopefully as viewers you don’t necessarily have to think about it, but we feel that it’s an emotional thing and that it communicates through that.

On working with the actors:

SnitchSeeker: Did any actors, like Alan Rickman, help you to think about how to do their character?
Eduardo Lima: No, because we never saw a scene of him writing anything, so we never needed to get into that.

Mira Mina: We were working quite in advance of those scenes, so sometimes we’d finished the book already. But it was really nice when actors came back from set and say, “That was really nice to have a complete book that felt like it was my book.” We always do all the pages, as well. We might do maybe 10 or 15 original pages and then repeat them. So when the actor opens the book at any point, there is content.

EL: They feel there is a real book. It’s not just a cover with something else. For example, that paper there (points to the “I must not tell lies” paper) is Harry’s lettering.

MM: We did ask [Dan Radcliffe] for that. Because he had to write in the scene, we had to use his real handwriting - which is really bad, by the way. (laughs)

How old was he when he wrote that?
MM: Maybe 14. (laughs)

On creating the Daily Prophet:

Eduardo Lima: A favorite prop that we designed was the Daily Prophet because it was so important to tell the story. In every single film we have a different sort of Daily Prophet. It was very important to tell what was happening. In the first three films, it was more fun and in the fifth film, when the Ministry of Magic comes and take over the Daily Prophet, it becomes a bit more serious.

Did you come up with all the news?
Mira Mina: Yes. Some of the titles were in the script, so we could use those, but very few because they can’t put everything in a film script. So we had to invent everything else – and that’s the same for the books, for the wanted posters, for the proclamations … all the text that goes into that had to be created by the graphic department.

EL: When we have photos, they are all moving, so we needed to do one version that has a fake photo and one with the green screen piece of paper.

MM: So the whole Weasley shop in the sixth film - when we read that in the script, we were just in absolute heaven, because for graphic designers to be told you have to design products for four stories of a wizarding joke shop, with no rules … and, in fact, definitely no rules. Throw all the rules out. The first designs we did were a little bit more organized, and then we just realized that everything needed to be designed by the Weasley twins - not by us. So we had to think, “Well what would teenage boys do if they wanted to sell as much stuff as possible?” They would probably print things really badly, really quickly, with wrong colors that clash and just stuff the shop full with products. So that’s what we did. We spent six months with about six of us just designing and making. Some of the things that you see are hero and then the rest is in the background, like walls, because we needed to communicate to the audience that this is a very successful shop and that there is activity.

EL: But, again, in the book there were seven or 10 products that she mentioned. We had to invent another 90 to fill that shop.

MM: So we had some funny days, where we were sitting having meetings, a few of us together with the set decorators, trying to brainstorm product names. All very serious faces with these ridiculous names coming out of this meeting - every now and then we would stop and realize what we were doing. But we never recorded or photographed anything, so ...

EL: … it’s a shame.

MM:: But that really was probably the best set to be involved in, even though it was just one and a half minutes, I think, on screen.
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EL: One minute, 17 seconds.