Production Design Inspiration: From Playtime to The Conformist

Production Design Inspiration is our brand new feature on Art Departmental where we lust after our favourite production design of all time. We will showcase an eclectic mix of various genres, periods, and styles of the best production design we can find.

Over the coming months and years to come we will also include visual retrospectives, like this one, of both production designers and directors whose work has withstood the test of time and whose body of work has continuously exhibited the finest production design in the business. These production design examples are shown here to inspire your creativity.

You can find all of our Production Design Inspiration posts here. Take time to explore to your hearts content.

Production Design Inspiration: A Visual Showcase

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

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After discovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, mankind sets off on a quest to find its origins with help from intelligent supercomputer H.A.L. 9000.

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Production Designers: Ernest Archer, Harry Lange, and Anthony Masters
Art Director: John Hoesli
Set Decorator: Robert Cartwright

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

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A seasoned FBI agent pursues Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully forged millions of dollars’ worth of checks while posing as a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, and a legal prosecutor.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Production Designer: Jeannine Oppewall
Art Director: Sarah Knowles
Set Decorators: Claudette Didul and Leslie Pope

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

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In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn’t go as planned.

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Production Designer: John Barry
Art Directors: Russell Hagg and Peter Sheilds

The Conformist (1970)

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A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Production Designer: Ferdinando Scarfiotti
Set Decorator: Maria Paola Maino

Closer (2004)

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The relationships of two couples become complicated and deceitful when the man from one couple meets the woman of the other.

Director: Mike Nichols
Production Designer: Tim Hatley
Art Directors: Grant Armstrong, Hannah Moseley, and Mark Raggett
Set Decorator: John Bush

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

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With a plan to exact revenge on a mythical shark that killed his partner, Oceanographer Steve Zissou rallies a crew that includes his estranged wife, a journalist, and a man who may or may not be his son.

Director: Wes Anderson
Production Designer: Mark Friedberg
Art Directors: Stefano Maria Ortolani, Marco Trentini, and Eugenio Ulissi
Set Decorator: Gretchen Rau

Barry Lyndon (1975)

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An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband’s aristocratic position in 18th-century England.

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Production Designer: Ken Adam
Art Director: Roy Walker

Playtime (1967)

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Monsieur Hulot curiously wanders around a high-tech Paris, paralleling a trip with a group of American tourists. Meanwhile, a nightclub/restaurant prepares its opening night, but it’s still under construction.

Director: Jacques Tati
Production Designer: Eugène Roman

Hook (1991)

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When Captain Hook kidnaps his children, an adult Peter Pan must return to Neverland and reclaim his youthful spirit in order to challenge his old enemy.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Production Designer: Norman Garwood
Art Directors: Andrew Precht and Thomas E. Sanders
Set Decorator: Garrett Lewis

Dune (1984)

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A Duke’s son leads desert warriors against the galactic emperor and his father’s evil nemesis when they assassinate his father and free their desert world from the emperor’s rule.

Director: David Lynch
Production Designer: Anthony Masters
Supervising Art Director: Pier Luigi Basile
Art Director: Benjamín Fernández
Set Decorator: Giorgio Desideri

Logan’s Run (1976)

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An idyllic science fiction future has one major drawback: life must end at the age of thirty.

Director: Michael Anderson
Production Designer: Dale Hennesy
Set Decorator: Robert De Vestel

Dogville (2003)

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A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado town. In exchange, she agrees to work for them. As a search visits the town, she finds out that their support has a price. Yet her dangerous secret is never far away.

Director: Lars von Trier
Production Designer: Peter Grant
Set Decorator: Simone Grau Roney

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

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A psychologically troubled novelty supplier is nudged towards a romance with an English woman, all the while being extorted by a phone-sex line run by a crooked mattress salesman, and purchasing stunning amounts of pudding.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Production Designer: William Arnold
Art Director: Sue Chan
Set Decorators: Jay Hart and Lori A. Noyes

Star Wars: Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

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After the Rebels are brutally overpowered by the Empire on the ice planet Hoth, Luke Skywalker begins Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued by Darth Vader.

Director: Irvin Kershner
Production Designer: Norman Reynolds
Art Directors: Leslie Dilley, Harry Lange, and Alan Tomkins
Set Decorator: Michael Ford

Which one is your favourite? What films inspire you? What’s your idea of production design porn?

Posted by Rose Lagacé

Rose Lagacé is a production designer for film & television by day and an emerging filmmaker by night. Rose is also the creator and editor of Art Departmental where she celebrates the art and craft of production design.

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