Design skills of fictional characters examined by real-life designers
You can’t believe everything you see on TV — or can you?
Architectural Digest recently evaluated the design skills of several fictional characters from the small and big screen, getting reallife professionals to weigh in on the subject.
The results were mixed. Mike Brady, an architect on The Brady Bunch, was knocked for only occasionally perching at his drafting table to get work done. Likewise with Ted Mosby, played by Josh Radnor on How I Met Your Mother.
Designers fared better: Grace Adler, an interior designer on Will & Grace, seems to have mastered a timeless esthetic — even more evident since the original show ended in 2006 and was rebooted last year.
“The fact that this apartment still looks good after all these years, and feels like a perfect match of client and design, tells us that Grace is a good designer,” said real-life interior designer Barry Goralnick. “When it comes to whose taste is reflected in the apartment, Grace has clearly put her client first.”
Aidan Shaw, Carrie’s furniture designer boyfriend on Sex and the City, demonstrated a classically American look
“In the past, I think he was a good designer,” said furniture designer Shuya Iida, the founder of Shuya Design. “Simple and stylish design was very famous around 10 years ago. But now, it looks too massproduction.”
Wilbur Post, an architect on Mr. Ed, got props for being productive while working in a barn — alongside a talking horse.
“Most of his projects were largescale, yet he seemed to produce each design in a day or two — renderings included,” says Jane Greenwood, principal at Kostow Greenwood Architects.
“His tools of the trade were a pencil, a crank pencil sharpener, and a parallel bar on a tilted drafting table — all very quaint, if not obsolete, today.”