An inflatable 18-metre-tall astronaut towered over the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York last night, designed by production designer Matt Steinbrenner to celebrate the award show's 40th anniversary.

Set inside the UBS Arena, the stage design is a homage to MTV's familiar Moon Person mascot – an astronaut planting a flag on the moon, which also forms the trophies for the music channel's annual Video Music Awards (VMAs).

Unlike the trophy, the stance of the blow-up figure was altered to stretch 17 metres into the room, reaching for a giant inflatable moon.

In this way, Steinbrenner intended to symbolise the astronaut emerging from the screen and reaching into the future to mark the 40th anniversary of the MTV VMAs.

"As we were developing the concept for this milestone year, we spent a great deal of time thinking about how we could best honor the history of the Video Music Awards while simultaneously representing the growth and future of our iconic show," said Steinbrenner, who has worked on the show since 2010.

"We decided early on that we wanted to show the Moon Person in a new position and not confine it to the traditional trophy stance with the flag in its left hand," he told Dezeen.

The Moon Person was fabricated by inflatables manufacturer Landmark Creations using 3,840 metres of fabric.

The aim was for the figure to appear as a solid object rather than a blow-up figure, which Steinbrenner described as "the most significant challenge" of the project.

"We strived for this giant centrepiece to truly look like a sculpture," Steinbrenner explained. "Inflatables are incredible objects and when they are refined such that they don't look like they are filled with air, they become downright magical."

"We spent an incredible amount of effort to get all the details right, dialling in the design of the graphic print and incorporating hard physical buckles and clasps that brought the smallest details and crispness to the final product."

Alongside the astronaut, Steinbrenner helped develop the stage design, which was divided into four adaptable platforms to accommodate multiple performances.

This included a platform that could be elevated six metres into the air and two main stages along the long side of the arena, each measuring 18 metres wide and 12 metres deep and backed by walls of screens.

During the event, videos were also projected onto the astronaut's visor and the giant moon.

"The VMA's have always been at the forefront of innovative stage design," Steinbrenner said.

"I imagine this trend will continue as we push the boundary of how we can use arenas to incorporate more stage areas and create even more of a playground for the artists."

The MTV VMAs were first held in 1984 to celebrate the best music videos of the year.

Other set designs recently featured on Dezeen include a festival stage by Stufish for Lana Del Rey that was modelled on the Barbican Conservatory and the South Asian stage at Glastonbury that took visual cues from pulp sci-fi and tropical modernism.

The photography is by Justin Schmalholz.