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Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz
Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz blends light and color to create fantastic spaces, not unlike the films he cites.
Deborah Berke
Architect and professor Deborah Berke is known for developing an "Architecture of the Everyday," which one might see in her film choices.
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William Sofield
Designer of Gucci stores and downtown hotels, William Sofield mixes modernism with tradition. But his movie picks demonstrate his love for drama.
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Jonathan Adler
Potter, designer, chic guru Jonathan Adler has made having style de rigueur for being hip. We asked for five films that are essential to him.
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Calvin Tsao
Calvin Tsao, half of the esteemed Architectural duo Tsao & McKown, emphasizes the importance of collaboration. We asked what five films have helped him.
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Detail: The Bride of Frankenstein
Obviously films tell stories about people. But they also tell stories about places — homes, offices, castles, prisons, dreams. It falls to the production designer and art director to work with the director to create those spaces. (To learn about the collaboration between Joe Wright and his production design, Oscar-nominated Sarah Greenwood in Design of History). For designers, these sometimes magical, sometime nightmarish constructions can spur on real life designs. Sometimes its as literal as copying an image. At other times, its more philosophical, like the issue of light for Deborah Berke in Wait After Dark. And sometimes is just the graphic shape of things, as the proportions and perspective of objects in The Bride of Frankenstein for Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz.
We asked five leading architect/designers to tell us what five films — and why — have inspired their own creative growth and direction. The results are fascinating, not simply for the diversity of films. Connecting the designers' work to their films throws light on the complexity of the creative process itself.