Pastel colours, front-on facades, hyper-stylised uncanny symmetry: director Wes Anderson has a defined aesthetic. Once you’ve got your eye in, you can see it everywhere.

That was the premise of a thread on Reddit started earlier this year, “Accidental Wes Anderson”, where users shared photographs of real-world architecture and locations that look like one of his sets – with Bill Murray or one of the Wilson brothers plausibly just out of shot.

Wally Koval, a self-described “Anderson fanboy” with a passion for travel and architectural design, was inspired to take the idea to Instagram – a natural fit for the director’s twee style. But Koval, from Brooklyn in New York, wanted to dive deeper into the background of each building to find the “perspective, context and deeper insight into what these locations are really about – a bit more than just another pretty picture”.



He says his account, @AccidentallyWesAnderson, has found favour with “an engaged group of explorers with a keen eye”, who send him thousands of submissions every week. The community he has built around Anderson’s aesthetic was recognised last month, when Koval was able to exclusively share the artwork for Anderson’s upcoming film, Isle of Dogs: “not accidental, but very much intentional Wes Anderson”.

What makes a building “Wes Anderson” is a puzzle Koval attempts daily, he says. “The ones we see most often are a level of symmetry, a touch of colour – whether a pop of pastel, or an overall palette – and most importantly, something unique or atypical, perhaps some eye-catching juxtaposition as part of the location or facade.”

As for the “most Wes Anderson” city? “We were lucky enough to have recently visited Budapest and Istanbul – both overflowing with rich history, breathtaking facades and amazing architecture that lends itself to the aesthetic.” Berlin and Copenhagen, he says, also pop up regularly.

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