The Ugly Betty Set: Speaking Through Color

One thing I absolutely love about blogging is how totally disparate worlds intersect in the most unexpected places.  Such is the discussion at the blog Hue (a blog about the use of color in everything from interiors to marketing), where the blogger Rachel has joined a discussion about the use of color on Ugly Betty.  

The sitcom, Ugly Betty, has garnered quite a bit of attention and interest from critics. The show even received a 2007 Art Director’s Guild Award. The producer’s directive for the show’s look was, “I want it to look ridiculously fabulous.”

This is one overlooked aspect of the success of Ugly Betty: the incredible sets.  Besides, maybe Pushing Daisies, Ugly Betty is THE most beautiful pleasing-to-the-eye television show, based on the sets alone.  Read on!

Rachel then quotes an April story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a great description:

Ad agencies, publishing houses, operating rooms, office cubicles: dull, duller and dullest.Then along came “Ugly Betty,” set in the sleek, chic offices of a high-fashion magazine, and before you could say “Oscar de la Renta,” that changed.
Betty Suarez (America Ferrera) and her co-workers spend their days in an environment where steel-gray file cabinets and dust-colored carpeting would be ashamed to show themselves.

Now, I watch Ugly Betty in HD (the only way to see it, IMHO), and I’ve often wondered just how unrealistic the sets are.  But, the more I think about it, it’s easy to forget that there are standard corporate office cubicles in the show: remember where Henry and Kenny work in accounting for Meade Publications? 

But, the offices at Mode itself are high fashion, and furthermore, who cares if they are realistic?  They are beautiful, and help set a “mood” for all the parts of the show that happen at Mode.

Here’s what set decorator Archie D’Amico had to say about color’s role in the show’s set design:

“We created a world of colorful counterpoints for the various characters’ sets and try to keep the explosions of color alive, well and kicking throughout each episode. Color is at the core of what distinguishes the sets and reflects the lives and work environments of the characters.”

So true.  The entrance, with its stylish, futuristic look, fits Amanda perfectly.  And Wilhelmina’s (former) office, with its flowing linens and soft colors, tell the viewer that the owner of the office considers herself to be a queen (or,at least,a diva).

Anyway, the original post is worth a read and comment, give it a try.