Always on the look-out for creative female talents, our editor Iris van den Akker presents us with a stunning and very particular Playgrounds Eye Candy tip. Meet Annie Atkins designer of, among others, graphic props for films. Signs, posters, letters, book pages… all the things we barely notice but that contribute so much to making the atmosphere of a film feel genuine.
Iris: “Annie has the coolest job in the world – she designs graphic props for films. Her list of productions include Isle of Dogs, the Boxtrolls, Joker and the upcoming West Side Story. Lots of her work was greatly responsible for the look in the films of Wes Anderson. For example, she was the one behind the brilliantly designed Mendl’s boxes in the Grand Budapest Hotel.
Annie started to work on the Tudors, a serie about Henry VIII, for which she created royal scrolls, stained glass and calligraphy. In this series, historic accuracy was a bit more important than her later work, where she got to be a bit more whimsical.”
“Annie’s style is retro, but modern at the same time. She has a distinctive graphic style that works really well in production design. She writes about her experiences and work in her book ‘Designing graphic props for filmmaking’, which opens with a letter of praise by Jeff Goldblum.”
Annie Atkins is a Dublin-based graphic designer in filmmaking, famously known for her work as the design master of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. Her other film projects include Isle of Dogs, The Boxtrolls, Bridge of Spies and the TV series The Tudors.