Andy Hillman established his own creative set design studio in 2005 after experimenting with different creative fields and realizing his passion for set design. He works on high-profile shoots for magazines like Vogue but ensures his personality still comes through in his work by focusing on taste and variety. While the fashion industry can be challenging to succeed in, Andy emphasizes the importance of interning, being in the right place at the right time, and persistence to progress in his career.

1. “You´re always meeting new
people, but also working with
the same people and it kind of
becomes like working with your
friends,”
In 2005 Andy Hillman established Andy Hillman
Studio, a creative set design studio. They produce
work for big publications, like Vogue, Vanity Fair
and W magazine. But Andy didn´t always know
that this was what he wanted to do.
He started out with an art foundation course, thinking
he would do photography or fashion, but ended up
studying three-dimensional design at Bournemouth.
“The course was more invested in teaching you how
to think through a problem, rather than being very
young and trying to design a chair straight away,”
Andy says. After graduation he went to do product
design, but after trying this out, he realised that nei-
ther this was what he wanted to do. He went to study
furniture design, but it wasn´t until he met the set
designer Shona Heath that he found something he re-
ally loved to do. “It wasn´t a planned thing, but what
I liked about it was that it was always varied”. After
a certain number of years, Andy was ready to take
a chance. He left Shona, got a small studio upstairs
and he says that he has panicked since.
This was obviously a great idea and Andy is now
very happy with his job. “You´re always meeting
new people, but also working with the same peo-
ple and it kind of becomes like working with your
friends,” he says. Because there are so many levels
to his job, it never get´s boring and this fits him per-
fectly.
I ask Andy how he put his personality into his work.
He says that what tends to happen, is that good pho-
tographers will take a picture and you will know it´s
theirs. Therefor it doesn´t do them good if the set
designers style comes jumping out as it will damage
their heritage or their vision. Every photographer has
their own preferences in style and whilst some may
love a vintage type of look, others might think that’s
the worst thing in the world. But Andy still thinks he
puts his personality into his work through taste. “Say
that you get asked to make a boat for someone, then
everyone will make a different boat,” He explains.
Varied is the word Andy uses to describe his work.
“You always have a client that you have to keep
happy, but every time we are given the opportuni-
ties, I think we normally try and step out of what
you would expect from a brief,” Andy says. He finds
it hard to explain exactly what they do because the
fashion industry is very small and it overlaps into
other areas. “We´re not like production companies in
film, we´re not like theatre designers, we´re not like
installation people, because we do a bit of all those
things,” he says. When I ask him what his favourite
work is, he mentions different things, but says that
he couldn’t pick a favourite. “It’s nice to be in that
position, when you have to much to pick from,” he
says. He explains how he enjoys the challenges, and
the briefs that he has no idea how to do.
Succeeding in this industry isn´t always easy. Andy
says that interning is the right way to go, unless
you’re very lucky. In addition to that, it´s about be-
ing at the right place at the right time when some-
body needs a hand. “When people meet someone
and they get them in, they tend to keep those people
and they kind of naturally progress on,” he says. He
also explains that it´s about persistence and to keep
asking people for jobs.
ILLMAN
Photography and article by
INGRID REIGSTAD
The setdesigner with no boundries