The partnership between a film’s production designer and costume designer is an important one. One creates the outfits and the look of the character, the other creates the world that the viewer disappears into. Together, they collaborate to reinforce the visuals of the film. Todd Phillips’ “Joker” is a world where production designer Mark Friedberg and costume designer Mark Bridges’ partnership was pivotal. For Friedberg, he’d been working with Phillips early to find the perfect location for the gritty and grimy Gotham City. New York 2019 is starkly different from the New York of the ’70s, so Friedberg’s search extended to Newark.

The two Marks were inspired by an old car book to form the basis of their color palette. In “Joker” it’s Bridge’s costumes that change to reflect Arthur’s journey and not the production design palette since, as Friedberg explains, “it’s him that changes.