2015 Galleries
The Spark Gallery pages are one of our most popular design destinations, with thousands of visitors each year. Check out some of the latest Spark entries, in the galleries below.
Galleries // 2015 Spark:Product // Mad Men Bench
Mad Men Bench
Winner - Bronze
Competition: Spark:Product
Designer: Lorenzo Apicella - Pentagram Partner - San Francisco Office
Design Type: Public Installation
Company / Organization / School: Pentagram Design
Team Members: Michael Bierut and Emily Oberman - Pentagram New York
Matthew Clare and Dragan Sukljevic - Pentagram San Francisco
This installation is located outside the Time & Life Building in New York - fictional home of Mad Men’s Sterling Cooper Draper- and takes the form of a long bench featuring the iconic image of Don Draper taken from the show's famous opening title sequence. The idea behind the design is direct and simple. The silhouette of Don with his arm draped over a couch has become a symbol of Mad Men in the final moments of its opening titles. The show's story is told against the backdrop of massive cultural changes in the 1960s, and the graphic image picture's Don sitting back, taking it all in. The bench invites visitors to do the same, to take a moment and observe the excitement of New York around them. Mad Men, and Don in particular, are known for their cool, consummate sense of style, and the show has been credited with renewing interest in mid-century modern design. Rather than recreate the look of the period however, Lorenzo Apicella's design echoes it in clean, smooth lines that make the monument a sophisticated and contemporary piece of street furniture in today's New York. Temporary street signage was used to complete the scene setting.
