Some people who I’ve known for years still introduce me as an interior designer. It’s not their fault. There are similarities.
In the job of an interior designer and an interior stylist there is a client, a brief, moodboards, a budget, an install. But unlike an interior design project, when an interior styling job is complete and it’s been filmed or photographed, it all gets taken down like it never even existed.
Interior styling (also sometimes called set design) for photography takes all the good bits of interior design, plus a few new headaches, minus the consideration of longevity, all for the sake of some beautiful imagery, usually to sell a product or a service. It is a fantastic job if - like me - you crave variety and lack patience.
Sadly my job - as well as those of interiors photographers, set builders and the many other talented and skilled artists who make a photo/film shoot happen - is at risk of redundancy due to AI generated interiors images, a very real threat in my opinion. Why would a brand spend thousands on a day’s shoot when they can conjure a set of images via AI that do the same job. To the trained eye, AI generated images of interiors lack soul and richness, the light source often seems strange and of course tables sometimes appear to have too few or too many legs.
But that will change.
The technology will improve and soon no-one will be able to tell the difference. Or we’ll all become so used to them so as not to notice the discrepancies anymore. Our eye will become conditioned to the flat perfection just as it has to the false perfection of social media posts.
But for now, we do it the old school way.
I thought it would be fun to share a few of my sketches for recent shoots alongside the final images. I’m far from the best artist but I’ve found a few tricks to help present what’s in my head to my clients. I used to draw by hand, in fact I found some sketches from as recent as four years ago and I’m horrified by how I used to present! Pencil sketches, very poorly done, no colour, terrible perspective. Luckily they trusted my abilities as a stylist over my abilities as a fine artist!
Now I draw on my iPad with the Procreate app and it has been a dramatic improvement in terms of presenting a clearer vision for a shoot. I still won’t be getting an art prize any time soon, but what I can say is that my vision from the start usually manifests pretty well into the final images.
These are all from some Habitat and eBay shoots I’ve done recently. We find a location house to fit the brand’s seasonal trends, the art director and I plan out where in each location we’ll shoot each set, I go away and draw each set with the proposed furniture and accessories theta the client wants to promote and then on the day my team and I work with the photographer to manifest my drawings as closely as possible.
Things don’t always go to plan on the shoot day and there’s often a myriad of challenges to deal with, but it is always satisfying to see the final shots and feel like we achieved what we presented.










Questions in the comments!
Very interesting! When I think of "interior stylist" I was envisaging the person who comes along to add vases etc to an interior designers scheme for photographing, so apologies for my misconceptions! Didn't really think about how new furniture etc is shot.
I love your sketches. They’re charming and get the idea across! I have been practicing hand sketching again, lately!!