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Ina Mayhew traces the winding path of the arts that led her from New York to Italy and back again, to the fascinating world of film production design.


Production designers are omnipresent throughout a film. 

They curate the entire visual aesthetic of a cinematic journey—not entirely unlike, say, a creative director in the world of graphic design.

Ina Mayhew knows about bringing fictive worlds to life. A graduate of SUNY’s Purchase College, she has been working as a Hollywood production designer since the late 1980s, and her credits are vast: The upcoming Respect. Netflix’s “Heartstrings.” Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus and Girl 6. Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar.” A dozen Tyler Perry films. MTV’s “Teen Wolf” series. Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s “Family Feud” video. And on and on. 

Though she excels at bringing the narratives of others to life, in this episode, Design Matters explores her own.