Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

Austerberry was tasked with realizing the space. Here we see Elisa's half of the floor, which has an elaborate backstory left unmentioned in the film but which echoes the theme of water: The apartment was, at one point, damaged by fire. You can see the effect the water used to put it out has left on the wall at right.

Enter a caption (optional)

Del Toro and Austerberry also reasoned that the fire damaged the flooring, which was stripped away to reveal the subflooring beneath. The less-precise requirements of subflooring mean that gaps are permissible between the planks, which is why you see light from the movie theater below filtering through the cracks.

Enter a caption (optional)

Tasked by del Toro with creating a blue wall for Elisa's apartment, Austerberry came up with an interesting idea: It would have an aquatic-themed mural on it…

Enter a caption (optional)

…the famous "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" woodblock print done by Japanese artist Hokusai in the 19th Century.

Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

To avoid hitting viewers over the head with it, the painting was gradually distressed…

Enter a caption (optional)

…until it became practically invisible. "[The mural] faded back into the wall," Austerberry told the L.A. Times. "You have to look for it to find it."

Enter a caption (optional)

Guy Davis also did the concept sketches for the lab in which the film's creature is contained.

Enter a caption (optional)

Here's some snippets, frustratingly truncated, from Insight Editions' "Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water: Creating a Fairy Tale for Troubled Times" book, which describes what Austerberry was going for as he realized the space.

Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

Enter a caption (optional)

Here's a quick behind-the-scenes look at some of the sets:

For those of you interested in how one becomes a production designer, here's Austerberry talking about his early architecture career, why he shifted into film work and what the challenges are:

In this longer interview with BAFTA, Austerberry describes in greater detail what a production designer does:

If you readers are interested in learning more about production design, we have an opportunity to interview a longtime set designer/digital set designer who works in Hollywood. It's not traditional ID, but could be interesting--should we do it?

Enter a caption (optional)