You may have watched Argylle, Cleaner or The Hitman’s Bodyguard without giving a thought to how those sets came together. Oskar De Rozario is one of the people who made sure you didn’t have to.
Oskar De Rozario is an Art Director and Graphic Designer with a background in fine art, drawing and printmaking. His route into the art department began early, growing up around film and commercial sets, and has developed into a career across feature films, commercials and art department work.
Oskar’s route into the art department started when he was very young. From around the age of six, he would often be taken to studios by his dad, Russell, a Production Designer, while he was working on commercials. Oskar became familiar with the different departments and would help out where he could.
By the age of about twelve, he was working as a runner, helping on standby, and sometimes appearing as an extra or stand-in for an actor. That early experience gave him a practical understanding of how sets work, long before he formally entered the industry.
While studying for his A Levels and later a degree in Fine Art at Brighton, Oskar spent long holidays doing graphics for the art department, earning money to support his studies. After university, he secured a place at The Prince’s Drawing Trust in Shoreditch, now the Royal Drawing School, where he further developed his skills in life drawing and printmaking.
After completing his studies, Oskar continued working within film and commercial art departments, building on his background in drawing and fine art to develop his work in set design.
What does your role involve day to day?
Oskar’s work sits between visual design, practical problem-solving and communication. Starting in graphics gave him a strong grounding in the detail of the art department: the signs, printed material, visual references and designed elements that help make a set feel specific to its world.
As an Art Director, that work becomes broader. The role involves helping translate the Production Designer’s vision into something that can be drawn, communicated, built and filmed. That can mean working with drawings, graphics, construction, set decoration and other departments to make sure the visual intention is carried through into the finished set.
Oskar’s work also reflects how new tools are becoming part of the art department process. When Totom worked with him on Cleaner, the art department was using Midjourney to develop early concept imagery for a set of Mayan and Aztec-inspired masks needed for the scene where radical activists hijack an elite gala.
For Oskar, AI tools can help speed up the early concepting process, especially when time is tight in pre-production. He has also used ChatGPT to help with image concepting prompts, while Rhino 3D helps with modelling and visualisation. These tools do not replace the design process, but they can help generate options, test ideas and move quickly from a written brief towards something the wider team can respond to.
Who do you work most closely with?
Oskar’s role connects him with many parts of the production. As an Art Director, he works closely with the Production Designer and the wider art department, as well as construction, graphics, set decoration, scenic teams and other specialists involved in delivering the set.
His background in both fine art and graphics gives him a useful bridge between the creative and practical sides of the department: understanding how something should look, but also how it needs to be produced, installed and used on set.
What makes a project run smoothly?
Oskar’s route into the industry suggests how important adaptability is in the art department. From helping out on sets as a child, to working as a runner, extra, graphic designer and now Art Director, he has seen the department from several different angles.
That kind of experience matters because art department work is rarely about one isolated task. A smooth project depends on clear communication, practical decision-making and a shared understanding of the visual world being built.
Working with Totom
Totom first worked with Oskar when he was working as a Graphic Designer on projects including Jolt and The Hitman’s Bodyguard. Since then, he has moved into Art Direction, with Totom working with him on productions including Argylle, Cleaner and the soon-to-be-released Mutiny.
That progression reflects one of the things this series is exploring: routes through the art department are not always fixed or linear. People build experience across different roles, departments and types of production, and each stage gives them a clearer understanding of how sets come together.
For Totom, working with an Art Director like Oskar means being part of that practical delivery process: taking the design intent, understanding the information coming from the art department, and helping turn it into a physical set that works for the camera, the schedule and the production.