Five Design Focused Movies

It’s no secret that at TTANTI we appreciate design. The passion and perseverance that flows through a creative mind is deserving of awe and respect. While we might focus our efforts on our minimalist and modern watches, we’re always looking for inspiring ways that design takes shape. Here we’re highlighting five movies that took design to the next level - love them or hate them, the genius that went into these movies cannot be denied!

1. Exit Through the Gift Shop: this documentary showcases the controversial work of street graffiti artist Banksy. Sure to pique your design senses, this film is available on Netflix and will unfold a rarely seen look into graffiti art. While you can debate the merits of street art, the genius of Banksy, the conspiracy theories that swirl around him, there is no denying he has changed the landscape of design in his own realm.


2. Marie Antoinette: directed by the keen design focused eye of Sofia Coppola and starring Kirsten Dunst, this period piece is anything but stuffy. A visual treat for the eyes, every single detail visible to the naked eye (and perhaps some that weren’t!) was obviously chosen with great care and attention to design. The use and obvious delight of design in this film is a secondary character throughout, elevating and extending the plot’s twists and turns.


3. Helvetica: while you might think that typefaces are exquisitely boring, let director Gary Hustwit prove you delightfully wrong. This film walks you through years of fonts and how they have affected our culture in ways never before pondered. Imagine the Coca-Cola logo design with Comic Sans? Have you ever read a medical report in Brush Script? Have you ever pictured the McDonald’s name in bold all caps Franklin Gothic? Typeface design doesn’t scream at you, it whispers subtleties and influences your thoughts before you’ve ever read a single word. This fascinating look into the design of fonts is just our type.


5. The Grand Budapest Hotel: Wes Anderson’s latest film won the Oscar for Best Production Design. Obviously an accomplishment, what makes this visual feat so impressive is that the entire sets were created by hand (many times over!) and not created with computers. Designers created the fantastic historical yet timeless world Wes Anderson envisioned by painstakingly hand crafting every single detail in extremely precise colors, word by word, stamp by stamp, to elevate the story line to an almost absurd degree.


6. Beetlejuice: taking avant-garde design to the extreme, a once traditional home gets an extreme makeover as new residents move in and take over. Using contemporary design as the visual enemy in the film, every single change and absurd design move becomes part of the storyline. Tim Burton was using design not just to help his story line, but to expose it obviously and vividly in absurd and assertive ways.