Ina Mayhew

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.