Set piece

Production designer Ian Aitken in front of his Spanish Mission home. Photo / Babiche Martens

Ian Aitken was the production designer for new local film Separation City, a job that required him to oversee the look and feel of the movie and turn places such as the Wellington Town Hall into a Berlin hotel. The film, "a bittersweet comedy drama about falling out of love for the very first time", which Tom Scott first started writing 20 years ago, features local actors Danielle Cormack and Joel Edgerton and was shot primarily around Wellington.

Aitken has been designing for 30 years, beginning his career in the theatre world and eventually moving into films. (Australian comedy He Died with a Falafel in his Hands was his first feature film as production designer.) He casts his expert eye over some of his own design pieces and tells us about his 10 favourite things.

1 Spanish mission home

A classic house built in 1928 to a great design and constructed with the best materials.

2 Martin Poppelwell vases

I appreciate the illustration on everyday items that he is renowned for by integrating function with the aesthetic.

3 Pepper grinder

It was purchased by my brother in the late 1970s and still grinds well today.

4 Des Helmore painting

Having always enjoyed the minimal, it's as much what Des has left out of the painting as what he has included that makes it such a great piece.

5 School desk for two

I purchased this in Melbourne, it has a great sense of history with its inkwells and pits from the wheel of a pattern-maker.

6 Set of Eames dcm chairs

From designers and manufacturers Charles and Ray Eames; the chairs are representative of innovative 20th century design from the 1940s.

7 Engineer's boby

From the Victorian Railways Melbourne - the old & the new now accommodating my stereo.

8 Zephyr yacht

My latest purchase. Designed by the late Des Townson in 1956, it's a classic NZ design along with some of the most well-known classes in New Zealand sailing, including the Starling, Zephyr, Mistral and Pied
Piper.

9 Zucor drafting machine

I purchased this in 1982 while in Florence. This was my first serious investment and I still use it in preference to the computer.

10 Nomos desk

Designed by Norman Foster & Associates, the international high-tech architects behind such buildings as 30 St Mary Axe in London and the largest building in the world, the brand new Beijing airport.