Become a Set Designer
Set designers create scenery: from the community playhouse to Broadway and from museums to television and films. The sets, which are the physical surroundings set the production's mood, time period and location, whether this is a present day location, a fantasy, or a historic recreation. Designing sets can be satisfying and challenging work.
Steps
- Define the purpose of a set. To design a set successfully, you must understand its purpose, the character (if any) who "owns" that room (if it is a room), and how this setting can strengthen the play as a whole.
- Set designs suggest the tone and quality level of a production.
- Set designers create atmosphere in the audience's minds through their use of color, form, history, and association... obvious and subliminal.
- Set designs almost always give the audience clues about the time period and location of the story. In fantasy or science fiction the set design will even tell an audience the genre of the production - in fact, a set almost always does this. A location or locations in a musical will be heightened in design, just as the story is heightened through all that singing and dancing. Imagine a castle's Great Hall... wouldn't you expect it look different in design depending on who would walk through that heavy, iron-studded door - comedienne Carol Burnett in "Once Upon a Mattress" or the vampire in "Dracula"?
- Set designs have many practical purposes: providing varied levels to better present actors to the audience; providing physical elements important to the script and plot; helping to entertain the audience; visually underlining or explaining the images, ideas, text, and subtext of the play; and, pragmatically, shielding the backstage of live productions from the audience.
- Study art and design, literature, and construction - in school or on your own. Set designers are well-rounded artistic people who are Jacks-of-all-trades and who understand and use design principles.
- Accomplished set designers may come to the field from many backgrounds, but a college degree in theater or technical theater may be most common, followed by art, industrial design, architecture, or interior design.
- Design institutes are another route for learning to design sets.
- Gain practical experience early by working on school or community productions.
- Volunteer your time in designing, building, painting, and dressing sets or helping backstage.
- Practice skills that aid in a successful set design career, like drawing (by hand and computer), model-building, painting, carpentry, sewing, and designing and building props. if you can, apprentice with an established designer.
- Work at problem-solving skills. Set designers often have to solve problems fast and on their feet!
- Use good communication skills to communicate with others on the production team, from the director to the light and sound people. There is a chain of command on stage - in a large theater, the set designer talks to the technical director, who instructs his or her crew of carpenters. In a small theater, the set designer may BE the T.D. and carpenters... and the painter and set dresser too.
- Read and analyze scripts. A set designer must take words and ideas and translate them into a physical world.
- Often, a script has only brief setting information and a set designer must pick up clues from dialogue. For instance, if a character says. "What light from yonder window breaks?" there had better be a window!
- A set designer must research locations and historical periods and styles in order to design authentic sets.
- Design sets in a variety of formats to communicate ideas to others. Set designers must be able to draw sets, build models, and sometimes construct the sets themselves.
- Art experience with sketching and sculpting is necessary.
- Shop classes can aid set design careers by providing instruction in tools and construction.
- A background in technical drawing or computer-aided design (CAD) can be helpful in developing plans and elevations for set designs.
- Develop a portfolio of designs you've worked on. Include sketches (whether the show happened or not - do some practice sets, just to learn) and photos of finished productions.
- Portfolios are an important part of interviews for set design jobs. Ultimately, most employers don't care if you have a college degree; they just want to make certain you can do the work. Your portfolio, experience, and reputation matter.
- Join associations frequented by set designers. It's a good way to hear about jobs or network with those who might know about upcoming jobs. Some major theatrical associations include:
- National Endowment for the Arts
- Screen Actors Guild
- Society of Motion Picture and Television Art Directors
- United Scenic Artists
Tips
- Read up on set design:
- Set designer is a tough job that requires all of this information. You have to be strong for this job!
- "American Set Design II" by Ronn Smith
- Set designers also create designs for films and TV.
- "Stage Design" by Donald Oenslager
- "Designing and Painting for the Theatre" or "Designing and Drawing for the Theatre", by Lynn Pecktal
- "Designing for the Theatre" by Jo Mielziner
- "American Set Design" by Arnold Aronson
- "Alice Through the Proscenium" by Clare Floyd DeVries
Warnings
- Hours for set designers are determined by deadlines, which may result in long hours. Everyone else is waiting for the set design: carpenters, lighting, the director, the actors... After all, the show WILL open on time, so your set had better be ready!
Related Articles
- Become an Interior Architect
- Design Scenery for a Stage Production
