Rachel Thomas: Set design with phallic mushrooms
17 Mar 2006 Category: Features, Graphics, Music, Worldwide
Working as a set designer, Rachel Thomas joined Big Active about 1.5 years ago. Currently visiting Japan for a few days, she came round to our office to have a chat about her work and the things she loves.
written by Uleshka
Rachel, you started out as a photographer and then moved on to do set design. Can you tell us a little about that shift?
I had always taken pictures but was also doing set design simultaneously. I was doing shows for people, window displays and stuff but I suppose I didn’t take it seriously as my main thing. Before I went to Big Active I had a lot of work but nothing was really well documented. I made really big sets like the ones I did for Kim Jones but I never really documented them in the way they could have been.
Joe Ann Furnice has seen my work for Kim and asked me to create something for an issue about happiness in a Selfridges magazine. It was so successful and I got really excited about seeing my set designs in print! That inspired me to do more work like that. Also when I joined Big Active they were really encouraging to let me concentrate on set design.
We flip through Rachel’s portfolio and start to chat about this image of a women’s silhouette.
This is all paper. It is a project I have just finished with Dan Tobin Smith, a London based still life photographer. It is for the cover of a magazine called M-real for the Finnish paper company published by John Brown Citrus Publishing to show what’s going on with their paper business.
Cameo silhuette for M-real
Cameo silhuette for Head, Heart and Hips
They commissioned me because they’ve first seen my work for Selfridges. Then they wanted something like the women I made for the Big Active book Head, Heart and Hips but with depth and on paper. I’ve fought it for a bit because I thought: I’ve done that! - but then I started to play around with the paper and actually really loved it.
Flipping the pages again we get to talk about Rachel’s collaboration work with Peter Saville Studio.
This was for a band called The Music and another project on set design I did before I joined Big Active. The project was really all about generating this kind of imagery…
… but then kind of pulling back from it and watching the process of creating all the shapes.
You usually are heavily into those polystyrene sculptures, though. Would you consider that your favorite material?
I use various materials, but I have used loads and loads of polystyrene.
Who makes those things for you?
I literally just went thought the yellow pages one day and found this guy from a company called Topping Polystyrene and ever since then I’ve worked with him. I’ve never been to his workshop - he won’t let me! Polystyrene it is often used in a way that you don’t see it, like the big letters at a Tower Records or something. He is an amazing crafts person, though!
How do you two collaborate if he never allows you to his workshop?
I make drawings and I give him long instructions of what to do. I also mostly stick to very graphic shapes. I worked a lot with glitter and my designs work most successfully using a graphic shape and having that extruded. If you actually start to sculpt something it often looks kind of bad, like a bad sculpture - whereas if you keep things really really graphic, they work very well! The longer you make things the weirder they get - and it lends itself brilliantly to photography.
So you just do all the drawings and then always go to the same guy and say: make it like that! and he then just sends it to you once its done!?
Exactly!
a nice packet - delivered by Topping Polystyrene
coat hanger butterflies - Rachel works with all kinds of materials
Those things must be super expensive!
No - really cheap!! That’s also how we could afford to do such a huge set for Kim Jones - that mushroom was something like 18-foot tall and cost about £200.
What do you do about the coloring of the polystyrene? Do you paint it yourself?
What I mostly do is to give him pantone colors to match. He doesn’t match perfectly, but if you know that, then you know how to work with it. Sometimes - like in the Selfridges-thing where one side needs to be yellow and on the other one painted green - I couldn’t get him to do that, cause that was just too much going into detail! We did it ourselves.
So in order to get the perfect glitter for the Goldfrapp peach you had to do it yourself?
No, I just made sure that the perfect glitter got to him. Just like those tubes! There are meters and meters of tubes - imagine having to cover these whole tubes in glitter, how much mess that would be!
I would have expected him to say: “You know what? Fuck off! YOU can do those!” - but he just did it! … and then it cracked during the shoot! (laughs) Just totally falling apart!
If you wanted to make glitter tubes - properly - you just couldn’t do it for that money!
Why is it interesting for you to actually make all these things rather than creating those in 3D?
Lots of ideas I have, others are doing in 3D, but there is a different quality you get, definitely! That’s what’s interesting about my work that it actually exists. You should see people’s faces when they see those objects and go: “Whaaaa! That’s so amazing!” That makes the big difference.
And why does everything have to be so big? I mean - this plug you did was just huge!
My husband always jokes about that and says: “Let me guess!? It’s giant!”
I guess it’s to do with my influences. I like 1930s musicals and those stories about a stage production on stage having all these big things! It is about fantasy, visibility and taking things out of the everyday. It is also about the love of certain shapes - like the plug! Such a beautiful shape you use everyday but when it is blown up and glows it has a magic and awe to it!
What happens to all those objects after the shoot? Can you keep them or use them for something else?
Well - after we finished our shoot for Goldfrapp (they just got a record deal in Japan now, so they’re coming!) - they kept everything…
How was it to work with Goldfrapp and who came up with the idea for those phallic mushrooms, anyway?
Alison came to my studio and showed me all those copies of things that she liked and one of them was this Aubrey Beardsley drawing which I’ve never seen before. It was this amazing line drawing of a lady leaping through this garden with shapes which are exactly like those phallic mushrooms I then did. Some were more bent, but they were really beautiful shapes - a gorgeous version with a heart on it.
She was a bit unsure when she asked me: “Do you think we should do this as a stage?” But we just went ahead and did it. I knew that the shape and the glitter would just lend itself perfectly to the final image. Unfortunately, Alison was very scared of these phallic mushrooms and didn’t want to be anywhere near them at the end. She did have a picture with them taken but when it came to the editing process, she cropped them all off.
Interesting! I wonder why she cut them off! I don’t think that were really provocative or anything… I just liked those phallic mushrooms!
Yeah, it was a real shame that Alison didn’t go for those because they were really elegant! There was glitter, her music is glam rock - it would have been brilliant! We took this picture of her lying amongst those phallic mushrooms in her peach outfit looking amazing!
phallic mushrooms detail
final Goldfrapp cover
Maybe she was afraid that people would constantly talk about it like: “Oh! So you love big black glittery penises!” or something. I didn’t plan this to be provocative or anything though. I just thought it was a beautiful shape and it’s kind of funny, too! Well - we are adults!
When I look at your work - in general I find it very feminine, sexy and seductive. You work a lot with symbolism. How would you describe your esthetics?
I’m really interested in classic things, things you understand immediately, symbols…… for example those lips could never be pink or orange or purple - they would have to be red!
For some reason I just love the 20s and the 30s and the whole thing that goes with it: glowing perspex combined with mirrors, the beginning of electronics… even earlier with things like Metropolis! That kind of futuristic which - at that time - was just so beautifully crafted.
Your imagery is certainly very clean and slick…
… I think that that comes from a love for glamourous things!
For those images for the Head, Heart and Hips book, I drew all of the ideas first and then it was decided to be Dan and me (since we already worked on The Music before). I wanted it to be shadow and light, a really dramatic lighting which again comes from the 30s: film noir and all that. My hero is Elsa Schiaparelli - for inventions such asshocking pink and her surreal gloves out of black suede with red crocodile skin nails. So glamourous and so beautifully made! Combining the thing of being really really chic with something subversive in it.
I would love to make something beautiful and subversive with an element of fantasy in it for high end fashion, like Chanel!
You mentioned at some point that you also get inspired by things children do!?
Yes! Drawings and sculptures and - I search on the internet a lot and find funny things and projects that children do. I’m really into things that are handmade, and craft.
I suppose that doesn’t come through in this selection of work so much…
No! Not at all! (laughs)
But I really do! I love things that are a bit - kind of wrong! Like balloon sculptures! I found this amazing one which is about the Wizard of Oz: a rainbow made out of balloons with clouds in front of it and then you could see the city through the rainbow!
It was enormous but created in an office space!? Honestly - it is crazy! Whatever projects I make - I always find myself on the balloon sculpture websites looking - but then the balloons just haven’t made it into my work, yet.
I had a pitch at the end of last year for Coca Cola and it had balloons in them - I didn’t get it though….
I do dream about making a project with children - creating worlds together, making things one day!
You can make children yourself, now that you are freshly married!
I know…..
Thank you so much, Rachel! It was delightful talking to you!
29 Comments
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None found
hi
i am an estudent for graphic design in argentina
i’ll like now about your art
i’ll like recept information
sorry for my english
thanks
natalia
Posted by: natalia on March 18th, 2006 at 2:32 am
rachel is going a bright way.
Posted by: Olltta on March 18th, 2006 at 5:02 pm
thank you, that was fascinating!
Posted by: n69n on March 20th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Great to see such a talented designer tightly integrating the production within the design process.
Too often the ‘design’ stops once the files/drawings get sent to the production house - usually delivering a polished, over produced, crafted look. By actually being a part of the production, Rachel has given her work an edge that is very raw and fresh.
Posted by: miosite on March 21st, 2006 at 7:38 am
London is so very proud of Rachel Ford-Thomas!
Posted by: Mandi on March 21st, 2006 at 6:27 pm
fresh,slick majic and beautiful…. an inspiration…
Posted by: susan montgomery on March 21st, 2006 at 6:56 pm
Rachel’s work really blows my mind.
she’s insanely talented.
Posted by: Sam H on March 22nd, 2006 at 3:47 am
I am a fan, yes I am. Love seeing the unfinished models lying about the studio. A book of these pics would be awesome.
Posted by: Mooski on March 29th, 2006 at 8:11 am
[...] Okay, I don’t care much for sports. And sometimes I find it really ridiculous how whole nations will bend over backwards in their collective pride over their team. But I think it was a bit sad that Korea lost. But more interesting is how well Korean fans are taking the loss. I think Korea is making strides in their national conduct and manners. This interesting contraption to your left is the BioWall. Thanks to MoCo Loco for the tip. Both a wall fixture and mock-in-door shrub template they company that makes this proposes that it is educationally informative too! Anyways, it looks pretty cool and if it really is freestanding then all the more awesomeness. Rachel Thomas’ work makes me happy. It’s like some of my favorite drawings/paintings in 3-d!!! Psychadelic. Nothing else really new on the design front. Getting ready for the San Francisco design tour. That’s all folks. [...]
Posted by: Not Small Blog 1.0 » Blog Archive » Old Blogger Post 2 on April 14th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
[...] Rachel Thomas’ work makes me happy. It’s like some of my favorite drawings/paintings in 3-d!!! Psychadelic. [...]
Posted by: Not Small Blog 1.0 » Blog Archive » Old Blogger Post 2 - Weekend Post on April 14th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
You’re work is amazing, I love the glittery style of Supernature. I hope you get to work with Alison Goldfrapp, and Will Gregory in the future, because you’re truly a great artist.
Posted by: Jeff Wood on July 7th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
hi, i actually interned with a set designer in LA, US and got intrested.. I was hopin to use whatever i learned from him for one of my prjects in uni and am kind of lost. I am a design student at UCREATIVE, Maidstone, Kent. My e mail is rubina_10051984@yahoo.com
Posted by: Rubina Ramchandani on September 25th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
[...] a client of theirs for some time now but it’s only recently, after drafting Rachel Thomas [pingmag.jp] in to do a bit of set design for their Autumn Winter campaign, that their work is becoming [...]
Posted by: boicozine » Earth to Surface to Air on April 26th, 2007 at 9:41 am
you r a freak!!!!
Posted by: titsy on May 8th, 2007 at 12:49 am
Heh, to TS- you is right!l
Posted by: info@esmafix.ee on August 8th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Hey i am a art director in india i really like your work its great
this is my mail Id albertinchrist@gmail.com keep in touch
you are great
Posted by: ALBERT on October 11th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Hi Rachel,
I like your work! I’m in grad school for set and lighting design at UCLA, graduating next spring. Do you have any advice for me on being a set designer? Also, please contact me if you need an assistant on any projects. Good luck with everything!
Starlet Jacobs
Posted by: Starlet Jacobs on November 26th, 2007 at 2:23 am
hi, i like u r works,very colour full.congrats……….,i am a sculptor and also director of ‘doodle’ academy of fine arts,opp.museum,trivandrum, kerala,india
Posted by: SHAFEEK on January 18th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
[...] straight away that the image wasn’t generated by a computer, that it was created by hand. Rachel Thomas created the sets out of materials ranging in texture from styrofoam to perspex. Still life [...]
Posted by: Unklejam » Sleevage » Album Cover Blog. Music, Art, Design. on February 4th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
thanks for subject. nıce photos
Posted by: kurye on February 22nd, 2008 at 7:41 am
beautiful
Posted by: ANAR on March 26th, 2008 at 4:17 am
one of my school final straw was a silhoutette&book design theme, and here i like to thanks for imaginary of your work, great job, and like to wish you good success, and for the future too. it’s nice to see your things. thanks.
Posted by: katia on April 29th, 2008 at 2:31 am
[...] Published May 21, 2008 sculpture Nice set design by Thomas, who joined Big Active a few years [...]
Posted by: Rachel Thomas « on May 21st, 2008 at 6:12 pm
[...] publican las mejoras y más interesantes cubiertas. Se pueden encontrar diseños de Alex Trochut, Rachel Thomas, Big Active y muchísimo [...]
Posted by: Hey » Blog Archive » Sleevage on June 28th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Hi Rachel. Please, see this.
http://www.chandon.com.ar/187/
I think this is your design, but did you give the permission for this use?
This is an important camapaign in Argentina
Posted by: Coco on July 18th, 2008 at 8:36 am
[...] de una serie de cinco instantáneas realizadas por dan tobin smith de escenarios creados por rachel thomas, conocida por su trabajo para goldfrapp. acne paper es una revista que es necesaria digerirla con [...]
Posted by: acne paper on February 8th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
The Willy Wonka of set design. Amazing!!!
Posted by: Peirre on May 18th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
HI i am an Industrial Design student, but i have interned as a set designer in New York and when i graduate i plan on continuing set design when i graduate, is there any pointer or things you could help me out on.
Posted by: Nathaniel Deverich on September 22nd, 2009 at 10:57 pm
[...] Filed under: Design, Sculpture — norulesnoshame @ 10:38 Set design by Rachel Thomas, who is completely elusive online. I just want bigger pictures! She must have someone taking [...]
Posted by: Rachel Thomas « No Rules No Shame on November 16th, 2009 at 11:38 pm