John LePore designed Tony Stark’s computers for Marvel and built the world of Wakanda for Black Panther. The Emmy-nominated designer and founder of Blackbox Infinite — a studio that helps major brands figure out what to do with all the new technology landing on their doorstep — spoke at WorkSpaces about why the thinking behind great science fiction design and the thinking behind great workplaces are closer than you’d expect.
When LePore’s team designed the technology of Wakanda for Black Panther, they didn’t start with what would look cool. They started with real science. Vibranium — the fictional material at the heart of the film — was based on cymatics, a real effect where sound waves can physically move objects. The sand in Wakanda’s interfaces behaved the way it did because that’s how ultrasonic sound actually works in the real world.
Nobody in the audience knew that. But LePore argues they felt it. The technology felt believable because it was, underneath the surface, actually logical.
“I have no illusions that anyone came out of the movie saying, ‘did you notice the sand was being levitated by ultrasonic sound waves?’” he said. “But I think the audience could tell the characters knew what was going on.”
That combination of solid reasoning and eye-catching creativity is also what made it the smoothest project his team had ever delivered. Skeptical stakeholders couldn't argue with the science, and creative stakeholders couldn't look away from the result.
LePore has a rule he applies to every project, whether he’s designing a car dashboard or a humanoid robot’s face: if it’s only practical, engineers will kill it in the first month. But if it has what he calls “cinematic magic”, a moment that genuinely surprises you, that works better than you expected, a senior stakeholder will walk in, see it, and make sure it survives.
“When you can’t tell whether it’s the practical strategy or the design that’s getting you there,” he said, “that’s innovation magic.”
For workplace leaders, the question is worth sitting with: when someone walks into one of your spaces for the first time, is there a moment that makes them stop? Not because it’s flashy, but because it works better than they expected, in a way they didn’t see coming?
LePore brought up the curb cut; the small ramp at the edge of a sidewalk, originally built for wheelchair access. It also helps people pushing strollers, riding bikes, pulling suitcases, or anyone who struggles with a high step. Nobody had to lose anything for everyone to gain something.
He applies the same thinking when designing any experience: who’s missing from this picture? The spaces that hold up over time tend to be the ones that were built with the full range of people in mind from the start, not added in after the fact.
LePore closed with something worth writing down. He doesn’t know exactly what the future looks like, and he’s honest about that. But he’s confident of one thing: when we get there, we’ll look back at right now as the moment when everything was still up for grabs.
“Back in 2025, that was the Wild West,” he predicted we’ll say. “That was where everything was changing so fast that you could make any impact you could possibly imagine. The clay was still soft. The cement had not yet set.”
For the people in the room designing corporate campuses, hybrid programs, and the next generation of workplaces, that’s not a warning. It’s an invitation.
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