A set would just be a few boring walls if it weren't for the props. Think about your favorite room in your home and the big and little pieces you've added to it over time. It's these elements that make an empty room into a welcoming space.
Hopefully, you have the sense to know when you've achieved the perfect balance between not enough and too much to give your room a sense of style. Not everyone has that skill. Thankfully, TRG is packed with talent. Our design and styling team excels at using our extensive prop room to make sure the rooms they create have just the right look.
TRG has a massive prop room
Our designers and stylists use our two-story prop room as an in-house store to create stunning environments and compositions. Whether a room is crying out for a quaint cottagecore accent piece or a disco ball, odds are we already have one in the prop room.
After the room's main elements are set, such as the general motif, wall color, large pieces of furniture, and most importantly, the product that is to be featured by our client, our stylists go to work completing the room with thoughtful prop design.
Before propping begins, the stylist will create a back story for the person who would likely live in the space. Does the room have a bookshelf? If so, the type of books selected and any decorative pieces that get added to the shelves must make sense in the grand scheme. If the back story is that this room is the study for a successful lawyer, maybe that disco ball on the shelf isn't the best choice, but an antique globe could be just the right detail.
Our stylists have rolling metal racks with shelves that are used to assemble props they want to use for a specific job. They may know they want a vase on a shelf but won’t know which one is the perfect fit until they see it interacting with the other objects in the physical space. For that reason, they may pull several similar items to see which works best.
Stylist’s rack with pulled props.
After the items being considered for the space have been pulled, the stylist will work on completing the look. Making a bookshelf look great isn't as simple as just loading it up with books. The designer must play around with the objects to reach the right balance and effect when it comes to prop styling. The timelapse below shows the process of a stylist at work assembling items from the rack above.
The perfect prop for the space
Scale is always something to consider when working on a room's design. Just like Goldilocks, our stylists have learned that there is an option that will be "just right." (Unlike Goldilocks, our stylists know better than to break into someone's home.) A large surface such as a kitchen island is crying out for something substantial like a blocky cutting board or a large bowl or vase. These types of objects will help keep a room visually in balance.
Prop choice is also critical to ensure that the right notes are struck to convey a design movement or period. Selecting the right pieces or artwork will help make sure the intended mid-century modern vibe or European country house look is achieved.
Props can also play an essential role in the design's palette. When needed, the right prop adds a pop of color or can help bring out tones already in the design. The blue blanket in the image below brightens the neutral shades of this room and ties in the color from the hallway.
Digital props are a thing too
Props aren't just important in a physical space. They are used in CGI environments too. Our digital prop room lives in software called Asset Tiger. Just like they would for an actual set in our studio, the stylists make decisions about what virtual props to use when completing a CGI room for a client. You can see how the right accent pieces in the image below finish the chic styling of this digital room.
If you are looking for a multimedia studio with a world-class design team on staff, TRG Multimedia is ready to help bring your commercial photography, video or CGI project to life. Contact us today and see how our creatives can transform your vision into a stunning reality.
