Often setting the tone for his photoshoots, walking onto an Ibby Njoya set space can be an immersive enchantment full of sensory storytelling. The London-based, celebrated artist and set designer has twisted spatial restrictions into bursts of color for collaborative creatives like Paolo Roversi, Rafael Pavarotti, Imruh Asha and Ib Kamara making a mark in the fashion industry with his innovative approach to spatial design. His work, as seen in projects like the Naomi Campbell exhibit at the Victoria & Albert museum, showcases his ability to balance storytelling and visual harmony even when his signature style isn’t on display. Drawing from his Cameroonian heritage and personal inspirations, Njoya has developed a signature style that fuses color, texture, and crafted narratives into designed experiences that deeply consider the audience’s journey. With a background in illustration his unexpected pivot into set design blended emotional depth and vibrant color palettes into immersive environments that even extend to the runway. In an interview with Models.com, Njoya discusses the challenges of curating personal narratives in experiential spaces, his commitment to mentorship, and the continuous curiosity that fuels his creative process.
I was in London three months ago and went to see the Naomi: In Fashion exhibit at the V&A, which was a very impressive experiential space. You felt like her life was framed through the set design, and I wonder what your perspective is on building spaces that people are walking into and through.
To link the importance of space in experiential design is so important because you have to think about people’s journeys. What are they doing? What are they going to feel? What sort of experience do you want people to gain? I think Naomi was an important part of that in trying to understand how you accumulate someone’s life story into two floors, into these little boxes. I think that in itself was a big challenge, but I think we did the best we could in terms of trying to get as much as possible. Somebody like Naomi, she’s done so much, and she’s still doing more. With the curators, we had to be very selective in terms of what we put where and how it made sense in the overall narrative, the journey of people. What we wanted to do from a spatial design standpoint was to give you little parts about Naomi that you can experience, especially with the entrance. We wanted to really give you this icon catwalk superstar just coming directly at you and as you get into the space, you begin to understand a little bit more about her. Her ballet shoes at the beginning of her time, and then you go across the hall, and you see her hotel room in Chilton.
We wanted to give you this amphitheater, Coliseum feeling that keeps you in the space as it is a space that is normally very open. You usually can see the V&A architecture and this beautiful dome that is above you; you can see over the balcony, see the floor, and you can see below you. But this time we wanted to close everything, make you feel like you are in there, you are in her world. The importance of space in experiences is so important because it guides people. It takes people into these different worlds that you want them to be. It allows people to get out of their own space and go into another one that you created. Also, Naomi is an example where you would come in and it’s not instantly recognizably something that is me. We’re using darker colors, and we’re using black and white as very important colors. But through this process, you understand there’s an importance to things. Naomi, her pieces are so colorful and so much texture and material that you don’t want to clash with that. You want it to really be something that you sit with.
Growing up in the UK, you went to The BRIT School and got your BA in illustration – how did set design first come into the picture, especially within the realm of fashion?
Growing up, my mom was a massive fashion inspiration. She’d always wanted to open a little shop and to be a stylist. But for some reason, having kids took a lot of that away from her, and she became more of a person who just loved to dress. For me, I think she’s been a big inspiration in terms of fashion and understanding clothing a little bit. In terms of getting into set design, honestly, I stumbled into set design. Until my last year of university, I never knew it was a thing. I understood that maybe people are making these things, but I never understood the importance of it or that somebody can do this as a job. I got dragged by a couple of friends at Uni who were like, “Oh, this person came to give a lecture. I think you should go and look at it” since they were doing things that really resonated with the things that I was doing at uni. I’d always been somebody who liked to see how people experience space, how we are in it , what it does to us, and how we move around it. So after going to that lecture, it was like, when you have the light bulb moment. This is what I want to do. But I think the reason why I really love doing this part of the job was that it didn’t limit my dreams.
“The importance of space in experiences is so important because it guides people. It takes people into these different worlds that you want them to be.”
The ability to dream in different sectors, mediums, and ways to create allows me to continuously learn, continuously be on my toes, continuously discover new things, and continuously be curious. I think that was one of the things that I cherish the most, that level of curiosity and the ability to continuously dream in different forms. Set design, and especially spatial design, allowed me to do that. From a fashion sense, I think coming into it, my early years was trying to mix two of my favorite things. How do I mix painting and this vibrant use of colors into fashion? I think that was something that I’d always wanted to explore and to do something that was undeniably me. I think that also allowed me to approach set design from an emotional standpoint because set design can very easily be, “Oh, we want a chair” and you look for a chair, then bring a chair. I think I wanted to approach it from a little bit deeper, where, how do we convey these feelings that this brand, and how do we translate that emotion into a color palette, but also how do these colors move? How do they interact with each other? How do we make it fit and make sure that it doesn’t clash too much with what we’re trying to sell or trying to be as a center of attention? So it’s always been a conversation with every project that I have with the people involved in it, whether it’s the photographer, art director, the client, or whoever.
Color is such a vibrant part of what makes your work stand out, How does color drive your collaborations with artists like Paolo Roversi, Ib Kamara, Imruh Asha, and Rafael Pavarotti? Was color always a connecting part of your conversation with those artists, or was it something that you guys naturally gravitated toward?
It’s interesting because with the people that you just listed, the connection is fun. When you look at Imruh, for example, you can sense this youthfulness within Imruh that we’ll never leave. I think Imruh and I are so much alike in terms of the fact that we love what we do, but at the same time we understand that this thing, we still need to retain our inner child through this process. It’s our ability to be curious throughout everything. Imruh is incredibly curious. Ib is incredibly curious and Paolo is incredibly curious. Every single one of them, including Raf, they’re all curious beings who understand that we’re here to create. At the same time, we are here to give a little bit of ourselves. We’re here to make sure that whatever we’re putting out in the world, it’s coming from us. Also, when you look at Imruh or Rafael, where we come from and with our backgrounds, a very important part of that color. In Africa, we use it abundantly – you see it everywhere and you don’t see it in its muted tone. You see it at its most vibrant time, at its purest. The thing that connected us the most was curiosity, our ability to just have fun and enjoy the process of what we’re doing.
Did you ever assist?
Yes, I assisted for four or five years. I assisted a few different people in the beginning when I was trying to learn, and then I ended up assisting one person who taught me so much about the process, Thomas Bird. An incredible mentor. I learned so much about the business through him, looking at his process and looking at the way that he thought about everything. Even now, so often I will call Thomas, I’ll be like, “I’m doing this. Can you tell me how you would approach this? And the incredible and most humbling thing that I’ve had was vice versa, Thomas would call me and ask me, “How would you approach this thing? How did you do this?” It just goes to show you that even though you’ve been doing this thing for a long time, and Thomas has been doing this for so long, there’s still so much that you can learn.
I remember Thomas and I during the first lockdown when we started this charity called Show, where we wanted to help young kids from a neighborhood that only thought that the fashion industry ended at photographer, stylist, art director, and creative director. They did not understand that to complete all of this, there are a huge amount of people that make it possible. The aim of it was to show people that, hey, to do a photo, you need a producer, you need a makeup artist. You need an assistant, you need a lighting assistant, you need a DJ, you need all of these things! We managed to grab a few people from the industry to come to this school and help show the kids a little bit more about their process. This is how we do a set. This is how we create a PDF. This is how we build this, this is how makeup is done, how the lighting is done.
Speaking more on mentorship and considering what you mentioned, how important do you think mentorship or internships are in starting a career in fashion?
I think mentorship is so important because it allows you to connect directly with somebody who has actually gone through what you’re going through now. They’ll probably be able to give you some pointers. It might not be something that will change completely what you’re doing, but it gives you perspective. With my team, I wouldn’t be where I am without the people that I have around. The amount of work these people do makes it easy for me to be able to do what I’m doing. For the whole team, we are so driven in the process. I did Mentoring Matters for a few years. It’s so easy to show a Vogue cover, but how did you get there? Every time we have an opportunity to talk or to show people what we’re doing, we show the process.
When it comes to color, especially saturated color and shadow, you like to bring elements into your work. What drew you to those elements initially? When you’re working with clients, how are you able to honor what is your signature in a way?
Luckily I’m in a space where a lot of my projects now come to me because the clients know what I’m able to do. They want me in it, so it makes things a little bit easier. You understand that, okay, now we’ve managed to build a visual language that people understand, that this is what you guys can create. The important thing is that we don’t want to be bogged down to just pigeonhole.
Through the differences in our work, we’ve tried to show how we can take it from here and go there. It’s just whether you give us the trust and allow us the freedom to explore that. We all need a little bit of color in our lives, especially when you live in London.
Thinking about the next generation of people who might be interested in coming into spatial design or set design, do you have any advice for someone who wants to work in those spaces?
I think my biggest advice would be to stay curious. I think there is so much that is going to be changing in the process, in the way people do things and you already see with AI. So, the speed at which this generation is going to be able to visualize ideas is going to be way faster than our generation or generations before us were able to conceive them. I think staying curious, trying to stay true to yourself, and understanding where you come from are important parts of your output. Always try to think, how do I really feel about this? What does it say about me? What does it say about what I’m trying to say? At the end of the day, we’re not saving any lives. Use the tools that you have to extend your ability to imagine, your ability to explore new ideas and just do the best you can with what you’ve got.
