Keeping an eye on the main picture

Set designers - or production designers, as they are more generally known - find their career opportunities in television, film and the theatre.

Television is probably one of the most eclectic spheres, as designers could find themselves working on news, current affairs, light entertainment, dramas, soaps or commercials.

Designing for television is quite a specialised skill, says production designer Alan Farquharson. "TV production designers are not in the business of designing sets, they are in the business of designing TV pictures." Farquharson says that the set is just part of the process of creating pictures and the designer needs to work closely with the costume design and lighting departments.

TV is known as "multi-camera" production. Several cameras are used at once, so the designer needs to be aware that their set will be viewed from different angles. This type of filming is used because television is often live and so it isn't possible to change the set for different shots.

Film production involves setting up single camera shots. "Each shot is lit differently, so a scene is set, the shot is taken and then you move on," says Farquharson. Producing a film is a very long process and there may be about 80 different sets in a single feature film.

Stage production involves designing sets that are easy to change while still being provocative and interesting. Designers can produce quite abstract sets without confusing or alienating the audience. "It's a theatrical convention which is rarely done in TV or film, where people have expectations of realism."

Production designers also play a role in deciding the locations that are used for the set. The designer and the director will tell the location manager the type of set they're looking for. The location manager then presents a number of settings to the designer who may eliminate some, then the designer and the director together decide which site will lend itself best to being adapted for the scene.

Research is an important part of the job of the designer. For historical productions, the designer can spend a lot of time in museums and trawling through antique shops for ideas of what street scenes should look like or the smaller details such as everyday utensils and ornaments.

Production designers come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including graphic design, interior design, fine art, architecture and animation.

Most colleges offering art and design will have a course that has elements of production design. However the proportion of the course devoted to production varies from college to college.

Pat Molloy, head of the department of film and media at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, advises budding designers to get some third-level qualification in the area. "College can teach you to think in terms of spatial reasoning. Theatre is not a flat art and you need to learn how to get your ideas across and learn the language of architecture so others can build your designs."

Graduates starting out on the job enter at trainee level, regardless of their qualifications. However their qualifications will usually determine how quickly they ascend the career ladder.

Molloy says the job market in Ireland is currently quite good, but that it is a mainly freelance industry and there is no such thing as a job for life. On the lower rungs of the ladder the money isn't great, but, he says, "when somebody makes their name they can set their own price".

However, it is quite a physically demanding career, with people working 12 to 16 hours, six days a week, during busy times.

Stage and costume designer Joe Vanek advises students to take art and, if possible, some architecture component, for the Leaving Cert. Work experience during college is also important, he says.

"Students should try to pick up work assisting in small films, model making or painting - even sitting in on productions is useful." Designers also need to be very patient, he says, and should be able to work to deadlines and know how to keep to a budget.