PHOTOGRAPHY: BEX DAY WRITER: HARRIET LLOYD-SMITH
SET DESIGNERS HELEN CHESNER
(LEFT) AND ISABEL GIBSON AT THEIR
STUDIO IN FOREST HILL, LONDONIn 2012, two young graphic design students
presented a project at London’s Chelsea
College of Arts. They’d concocted an idea for
a Sky Arts ident that explored ‘anticipation’
through bowling balls and a steamrollered
cake. They were chuffed with the result; their
tutor less so: ‘Just please promise me you’ll
never, ever work together again,’ he implored.
Thankfully, British set designers Isabel
Gibson and Helen Chesner – AKA Isabel +
Helen – ignored their tutor and, in the seven
years since graduating, have enjoyed a swift
ascent thanks to their combined knack for
kinetic and commanding spatial design.
They’ve already been around the block,
working on low-key retail interventions,
quirky personal projects, and space-altering
fashion showstoppers. From Nike to Tate
Modern, RIBA to Hermès – no job is too big
or small, and few tasks out of the question.
The magic happens in their south London
studio, occupying the old laundry room of
a former Victorian house for ‘destitute anddisorderly’ girls. Gibson and Chesner are
everything but disorderly – two down-to-
earth women with a bank of unearthly ideas.
Pre-Isabel + Helen, Gibson worked
at multidisciplinary design agency Hotel
Creative and Chesner assisted spatial
designer Robert Storey. ‘We never intended
to set up a studio straight away, but it was
all quite natural,’ says Gibson. The duo’s first
collaborative venture was an interactive
‘Constructivist Playground’ commissioned
by London’s V&A Museum for a celebrationof Russian art and culture in 2014. (^) »
Scene makers
Set designers Isabel + Helen have captured
the imagination of London’s fashion players
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Design