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Staff pick: Fake Love Letters, Forged Telegrams, and Prison Escape Maps

Melissa Starker, Creative Content & PR Manager

Mar 25, 2020

A picture of hands holding the fictional book The Grand Budapest Hotel, designed by Annie Atkins

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Irish designer Annie Atkins can't make the Wex event scheduled for March 28 to discuss her new book, Fake Love Letters, Forged Telegrams, and Prison Escape Maps: Designing Graphic Props for Filmmaking. But there's good news: Atkins plans to reschedule her book tour. And there's no need to wait for the author to enjoy her charming visual diary of creating props for projects such as the Showtime series The Tudors and several films by Wes Anderson, including The Grand Budapest Hotel. 

Cover of the book Fake Love Letters, Forged Telegrams, and Prison Escape Maps: Designing Graphic Props for Filmmaking by Annie Atkins

Images courtesy of Phaidon

I borrowed a copy from the Wex Store for research a while back and couldn't bring myself to part with it. Along with breakdowns of what went into some of her favorite props and a great story behind the iconic Mendl's Patisserie box from Grand Budapest, Atkins shares a few tricks of her trade and pictures of the vintage objects she collects for inspiration. Her book is beautiful in every detail, with a subtle grid pattern as a running design element—a nod to the old, pre-Adobe way of doing things in her field.

"Annie makes the unreal seem hyperreal, and the real more supremely alive and utterly magical."
Jeff Goldblum

Fake Love Letters is available for purchase online through the Wexner Center Store. (Please allow some extra time for shipping.)