Johannes Soderqvist, the art director for
Mirror's Edge had just come back from a trip to Spain
and was obsessed with the brilliant white plaster on the buildings there.
He loved the way it reflected light and had an intensely clean and fresh look to it and came back with
many photographs that helped shape the look of Mirror's Edge.
The world of Mirror's Edge is under almost totalitarian control and you play the role of Faith,
a runner for the revolution. But this isn't the usual grimey, dark and imposing totalitarian city
that you normally see in other games and movies with similar themes. This is something more subtle.
It is antisceptically clean and beautiful to the point of perfection, but in its quest for perfection, it must control.
Cameras are everywhere. Areas are roped off with barbed wire.
Ubiquitous security personnel are armed and ready to keep everyone in line.
It's like when you were a kid and you visited that one rich lady's house and you got yelled at every two minutes
for fear that you might touch anything, break something, or make a mess.
It's that kind of oppression, only on a grander scale.
In this shot, Faith is penned up in a barbed wire fence inside an alley within this perfect white city.
With the sun shining above, you can almost feel the rooftops calling to you to rise up above the city and find freedom.
(photo taken in-game)
