007 MAGAZINE - The World's Foremost James Bond Resource!

JAMES BOND
NEWS

007 MAGAZINE HOME  •  JAMES BOND NEWS  •  FACT FILES  •  MAIN MENU  •  PURCHASE 007 MAGAZINE
 
Production Designer Sir Ken Adam James Bond Production Designer Ken Adam 2008 Lucky Strike Designer Award

The jury of the Raymond Lowey Foundation is awarding the leading international designer prize - the Lucky Strike Designer Awards with its prize money of 50,000 Euros - to Sir Kenneth Adam. With this year's award, the Foundation honours the works of a film production designer for the first time. “Ken Adam created unique cinematic worlds, illusions on film whose images, spaces and products remain alive in the collective memory of entire generations”, thus the jury's decision. Ken Adam will be presented with the Lucky Strike Designer Award at a ceremony held on 13th November in the Berlin cinema Kino Kosmos.
Ken Adam's pre-production artwork for You Only Live Twice (1967)

Ken Adam is a native of Berlin, where he was born in 1921. He emigrated to London with his family in 1934, and the British capital has remained his home to this day. The twice-over Oscar winner is regarded as one of the most influential production designers in modern cinema. His spectacular sets for the James Bond classics Dr. No, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker wrote film history. The gimmicks Adam created elevated 007 from a hero of spy novels to a silver screen legend. The unique sets and rooms he created are nerve centres of evil - monstrous control centres, the rocket launch platform in the volcanic crater in You Only Live Twice (1967) starring Sean Connery and Karin Dor or the treasure vault of Fort Knox in Goldfinger (1964) starring Sean Connery and Gert Fröbe.
Blofeld's apartment set at Pinewood Studios - You Only Live Twice (1967)
Ken Adam speaks exclusively to 007 MAGAZINE OnLine on winning the Lucky Strike Designer Award

BERLIN BOUND
Speaking exclusively with 007 MAGAZINE, Sir Ken Adam explained that the award “had really come out of the left field and was a fabulous surprise and a great honour.” Having always been a fan of designer Raymond Loewy’s work the award had a special meaning for Sir Ken – and the 50,000 Euros (approx £40K) prize money accompanying the leading international designer award was bound to come in handy to stock up on his obligatory Monte Cristo cigars! Sir Ken will be visiting his native Berlin to officially accept the award and take part in the three-day celebrations in mid-November.

Ken Adam developed Bond's amazing weapons and gadgets, and equipped 007's famous Aston Martin with all manner of exciting accessories such as rocket launchers and an ejector seat. No less legendary is the huge war room that Adam designed for Stanley Kubrick's 1963 movie Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb.
Volcano crater set at Pinewood Studios designed by Ken Adam Fort Knox interior set for Goldfinger (1964) designed by Ken Adam
You Only Live Twice (1967) starring Sean Connery as James Bond 007 Ken Adam with Albert R. 'Cubby' Broccoli during the construction of the 007 Stage in 1976

ABOVE: PINEWOOD STUDIOS - THE HOME OF BOND (left) Ken Adam's volcano crater set build at Pinewood for You Only Live Twice in 1966 (top right) Adam on the Fort Knox gold vault set  he designed for Goldfinger in 1964 (bottom right) Adam with James Bond producer Albert R. ‘Cubby’ Broccoli during construction of  the original ‘007 Stage’ (designed by Ken Adam) which was built for The Spy Who Loved Me in 1976.
Cubby Broccoli and Ken Adam on the set of Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at Pinewood Studios in 1968

Producer ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and Ken Adam on the set of Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at Pinewood Studios in 1968.

A total of over 80 international films, many of them major Hollywood productions, bear Ken Adam's signature. In addition to the Bond movies, they include The Red Corsair, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Around The World in 80 Days. Adam won an Oscar in the category Best Art Direction for Barry Lyndon and another in the same category for The Madness of King George. He was also nominated for an Oscar three other occasions.

The decision of the Raymond Loewy Foundation  has a very special significance for Sir Ken Adam: “I am a great admirer of Raymond Loewy's work, and am very proud to be presented in recognition of my work with the Lucky Strike Designer Award by the foundation that carries his name”.

By choosing Ken Adam as the prize winner of the 2008 Lucky Strike Designer Award, the Raymond Loewy Foundation is following its tradition of illuminating the entire spectrum of design, in terms of both content and form, in its full breadth, and making it known to the public at large.

http://www.raymondloewy.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy

 

JAMES BOND NEWS

FACT FILES