MinaLima on Bringing “Harry Potter” Magic to Diagon Alley

Harry Potter fans know the design team MinaLima as the force behind all the wonderful designs and props in the Harry Potter films. The team behind iconic images such as the Daily Prophet, the Quibbler, the Marauder’s Map, and much more have turned their design skills to bringing the Harry Potter magic to the real world.

For the newly opened Diagon Alley extension of the Orlando theme park, Universal used MinaLima to help bring the park to life. In a new interview, the MinaLima team, Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima, speak about their work on Diagon Alley.

On recreating Rowling’s world, Mina said,

Rowling captures the essence of an object, but we were given free reign to create all the details.

For the Weasley joke shop, they

used all kinds of rudimentary printing techniques and clashing graphics for the Weasleys’ products. We drew inspiration from childishly designed things like firecracker packaging.

The team also drew inspiration from design history:

Harry Potter’s world includes Gothic, Victorian, Soviet elements, ‘70s and ‘80s influences. When we designed the Daily Prophet, we knew it needed to be quite imposing-looking as a newspaper from the Ministry of Magic’s totalitarian state, so we looked at Soviet propaganda images and mimicked their look.

The article also says that

Their designs also had to convey Diagon Alley’s age–it’s not a brand-new mall, it’s a historical shopping district dating back centuries (some fans estimate Ollivanders Wand Shop started in the 4th century BC). MinaLima made much of their signage look intentionally weathered, with ghost-lettering, faded paint, and vintage wood. But they had to ensure that the signs don’t actually become weathered–in windy Florida, they all had to be hurricane-proofed.

Read the full article here.

Find out more about the newly opened Diagon Alley here, and see more news on MinaLima here.

Have you visited Diagon Alley, yet, this summer? Or are you hoping to get there soon? Let us know!