Anton KononovCreative director and creative technologist. World expos, giga-projects, landmark attractions and large-scale shows.
A destination opens once and is judged for years afterwards, and that is the horizon I design for. I work independently, as a named creative partner to studios and developers: I create the concept, present and workshop it with client leadership and their teams, then supervise, advise and hold quality control through to completion. Across ten years with Immersive International I co-led creative direction for the Expo 2020 Dubai Mobility Pavilion and the UK Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, and co-developed the Universal Sphere concept with Steven Spielberg and Foster + Partners.
Experience design at destination scale
I plan destination experiences around audience behaviour. I treat a place as a living thing rather than a finished object: before a single image exists I am asking who moves through it, what they feel in the first ten seconds and the first ten minutes, what they tell other people afterwards, and what keeps them coming back in year three and year ten. The psychology of the audience, the client and the collaborators, and the social dynamics between them, are the real material. Light, media and architecture are how that material becomes visible.
That is why my work runs from concept to completion and into the decades that follow. A pavilion or a district is judged long after its opening night, on whether it still means something to the people who use it. Picture the project in its third season: the queue has not thinned, the show still lands, and the content has been refreshed without touching the building. Designing for that is a different discipline from designing a launch, and it is what experiential masterplanning has to account for.
Experiential masterplanning for destinations and districts
Experiential masterplanning decides what a destination makes people feel, district by district, and in what order they meet it: the arrival, the anchor experiences, the everyday spaces between them, and the events that bring people back. I work at that level on giga-projects, expo sites and landmark attractions, before the architecture is fixed and again as it is built, so the visitor experience is designed into the plan rather than added to it.
The practice: independent creative direction for studios and developers
The practice is independent, and the work is the same at every scale. I create the concept, present it to the people who decide, workshop it with their teams, and then stay with it: supervising delivery, advising and holding quality control through to completion. Where a project needs a team that does not yet exist, I put one together from a network of proven talent and partner studios built since 2000: the designers, animators, real-time and show engineers, producers and specialist studios I have delivered with before. You can bring me into your team as creative lead, or ask me to assemble the team and lead it. On both world expo pavilions above the partner studio was Immersive International: ten years there as Executive Art Director and Chief Creative Technologist, and Head of Content and Animation.
One creative director holds the concept from the first sketch through value engineering, procurement and installation, so what opens is what was agreed, and the team around it is sized to the project rather than to a payroll. On long programmes the concept is documented in enough detail that any competent team can carry it forward, mine or yours.
What clients get from an independent creative director
Delivery without surprises
You carry the risk, so you get the information first. Decisions are traceable, the concept is documented, and a problem reaches you from me before it reaches anyone else. On opening day, what stands in the room is what was agreed in the room.
It ages into an asset
Every choice is made for the life of the destination. Show technology that can still be serviced in a decade. Content refreshed without rebuilding the room. A story that travels across vendors, formats and generations of team. Opening night is the first good day of many.
Concepts that survive value engineering
The boldest idea is the one that can be built, operated and paid for. I hold the vision and the bill of quantities in the same hand, so the concept that is approved is the concept that opens, and value engineering becomes a question of how rather than what.
Creative direction for world expo pavilions, host country and national participant
At Expo 2020 Dubai I worked the host country's own showcase. At Expo 2025 Osaka, a national participant pavilion. They are different problems: one is a nation speaking to the world on its own ground, the other is a nation earning attention on someone else's. The first holds a crowd that has already arrived. The second earns one from the walkway outside. I have worked both, and I plan a pavilion accordingly.
Confidential work on giga-projects in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf
About half of my work is confidential: giga-projects in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, including NEOM and THE LINE, where I interfaced with NEOM's Entertainment and Culture leadership; an experiential shopping destination at Qiddiya; a futuristic island masterplan; a futuristic family entertainment centre; a water park; and a VVIP luxury superyacht experience and content programme. The list stops at the category, deliberately. Scope, scale and my role I can describe in person, and I can put you in touch with the people I delivered it with. Your work would be held the same way.
How Anton Kononov works with studios, developers and expo organisers
With studios: named creative lead on your contract
You bring me in as named creative lead, on your contract, under your client relationship and your NDA. I do not approach your clients directly. Your pitch gains a senior creative who has co-led two world expo pavilions and delivered confidential work on a sovereign giga-project, and your headcount stays where it is. Where your team has a gap, I can bring in proven specialists from my network, under your contract and at your discretion.
With developers and expo organisers: advisory before a studio is appointed
What to build, whether it is feasible, and who can build it. Where no studio is in place, I assemble the team from proven talent and partner studios I have delivered with, and lead it. A destination engagement moves through diagnostic, an experience and activation blueprint, one pilot with a business case, and an executive decision. By that decision you are holding a costed idea with a pilot behind it. When you appoint a studio, I either hand the concept over or stay on to protect it. That is your decision.
Engagements, deliverables and scope
Two to six month creative-direction blocks, or roughly two days a week on advisory. You end up with a concept deck, an experience narrative, a show flow, a technical specification, a vendor scope, and me on site through installation. The public showreel is on the homepage. Restricted work is reviewed in person, where the permissions allow.
Questions about Anton Kononov's work
Who is Anton Kononov?
Anton Kononov is an independent creative director and creative technologist for world expos, giga-projects, landmark attractions and large-scale shows, in practice since 2000.
What has Anton Kononov worked on?
Anton Kononov's projects include the Expo 2020 Dubai Mobility Pavilion and the UK Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, both co-led with Immersive International; NEOM and THE LINE; the Universal Sphere concept with Steven Spielberg and Foster + Partners; ROARR at Victoria Falls; the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; BMW Welt's real-time holographic race; Andy Lau's arena tour; and Samsung Hypercube. See selected projects.
Who designed the experience inside the Expo 2020 Dubai Mobility Pavilion?
Immersive International created the visitor experience inside Alif, the Mobility Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, and Anton Kononov co-led its creative direction. Foster + Partners designed the building.
Who created the UK Pavilion experience at Expo 2025 Osaka?
Immersive International led the UK Pavilion experience at Expo 2025 Osaka, and Anton Kononov co-led its creative direction as part of the studio's creative leadership team.
Where is Anton Kononov based?
Anton Kononov is a creative director and creative technologist based in Dubai, working across the Gulf, Europe, Asia and North America.
What does Anton Kononov do on a project?
Anton Kononov creates the concept, presents and workshops it with client leadership and their teams, then supervises delivery, advises and holds quality control through to completion. He is in the room for the approval and on site for the installation.
What is an experiential masterplanner?
An experiential masterplanner decides what a destination makes visitors feel, district by district, and in what order they meet it, before the architecture is fixed. Anton Kononov works at that level on giga-projects, expo sites and landmark attractions.
How does Anton Kononov work with studios and developers?
Anton Kononov works as a named creative partner: with studios as creative lead on their contract, and with developers and organisers as an advisor before a studio is appointed, or as the person who assembles and leads the team when no studio is in place.
Can Anton Kononov put a team together?
Yes, where a project needs one. Anton Kononov assembles the team from a network of proven talent and partner studios built since 2000, sizes it to the project, and leads it.
Who has delivered large-scale real-time holographic shows?
Anton Kononov was on creative direction for ROARR at Victoria Falls, Africa's first mist-projected holographic show, and worked on the real-time holographic race at BMW Welt.
Why do clients bring Anton Kononov in?
Clients bring Anton Kononov in for ambitious work that has to open on a date and still hold a decade later: a concept that keeps its shape through value engineering, show technology chosen for a ten-year service life, and a client who hears about a problem from him first.
Does Anton Kononov take on new work?
Anton Kononov takes a small number of engagements at destination scale each year. Start a conversation.