Inspired by the hit AMC television show Mad Men, set in the Madison Avenue advertising world of 1960s New York, UNT interior design senior Stephen Walsh created a mid-century executive office suite that won first prize in a Teknion Student Design Competition. Walsh earned a trip to Toronto to discuss his winning design with product developers from Teknion, which designs and sells office furniture.

He says he was particularly inspired by a Mad Men episode in which a character refers to nostalgia as “a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.”

“When I planned my design, I wasn’t trying to create mid-century furniture,” Walsh explains. “I was borrowing elements to create something new and fresh with a sense of nostalgia.”

Walsh works as an intern at Interprise Design in Addison and for the North Texas chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.