Hasta La Ideas

A bench made in honour of the US TV show Mad Men has been unveiled outside the Time & Life Building in New York, the fictional home of the show’s agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Designed by Pentagram, it features the unmistakably louche silhouette of ad man, Don Draper…

Installed by the AMC cable channel to coincide with the show’s final series (the first episode of which airs on Sunday April 5), the bench will be on display in the Time & Life Building Plaza at 1271 Avenue of the Americas from now until the summer months.

Designed by Pentagram New York’s Lorenzo Apicella, Michael Bierut and Emily Oberman, the “monument” to the show takes the form of a 12-foot-long rolled steel plate bench, with the silhouette of Draper – arm draped along the back of a couch – cut from the metal seat.

The distinctive image of Draper appears in the show’s opening titles, designed by Imaginary Forces. Since Mad Men first aired the silhouette has become something of a symbol for the programme, indicative of 1960s glamour. On the bench, white painted graphics highlight a shirt collar, cuff and cigarette – unlit: no smoking in public plazas, Don.

Pentagram project coordinator Julia Lindpainter worked with the cable channel and the bench’s fabricator, DCL, to manage the design’s execution.

Project Team: Lorenzo Apicella, Michael Bierut and Emily Oberman, partners-in-charge and designers; Jonathan Correira, designer; Matthew Clare, associate and designer; Dragan Skuljevic, designer; Julia Lindpaintner, project coordinator.