Nat Turnbull has built a career out of seeing beyond the expected. Working as a set designer and stylist, Nat acts a mediator between form and function to bring to the surface a narrative that’s often overlooked when we take a first glance at an object.

Nat’s curiosity in seeing the world differently led her to study a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in sculpture at VCA and completed internships locally and abroad, which taught her how to use her craft in a commercial setting. But it wasn’t until her early twenties that she discovered the world of professional styling.

“This was the first time I was introduced to styling and learned it was an outlet where I could empty all of my ideas around colour, shape, form and composition in a creative but commercial way,” says Nat.

Looking beyond the eye

Alongside her day job, Nat started to steadily build up her own client base for styling work and eventually transitioned to working full-time as an in-demand freelance set designer and stylist. If you look closely, you can still catch a glimpse of Nat’s sculptural training in her work today where form and function are always drawn out and celebrated.

Nat begins every new job at her desk, where she’ll sketch and finesse initial concepts before sourcing the elements required to physically transform these ideas into real world structures. On a shoot day, there’s a mix of physical labour as she unloads props out of her Mercedes-Benz Vito Panel Van paired with precise focus as she assembles each individual prop and unifies them with her well-trained eye.

Nat’s intention is to look past what the eye initially sees and tell a story that extends past the physical nature of an inanimate object. For Mercedes-Benz, Nat created a still life series that captures the essence of an automotive vehicle.

“The concept was to look at elements of a car and break them down to essential shapes,” she says. “When you look at all the pieces that make up a car, they are the circle of the wheel, the bent rectangle of a windscreen and the arch shape of a door.”

From here, Nat conceptualised each of these organic shapes into abstract sculptural pieces using different raw materials and pairing them with existing Mercedes-Benz merchandise. Nat worked with local makers to bring each form to life, including Heimur for the timber wheel, Softer Studio and Jordan Fleming for the plastered door, and Idle Hands for the brass windscreen.

On location in her studio, Nat and photographer Victoria Zschommler were keen to capture the craftsmanship of a Mercedes-Benz vehicle in their final creative output. The duo are long time collaborators and their creative partnership transcends the traditional siloed roles of a stylist and photographer.

“Victoria and I are definitely on the same page with ideas and often push each other a little bit further creatively than we would naturally think ourselves,” says Nat. “It’s a very collaborative process and we go into our own little bubble, which is so nice to find in a creative partnership.

At the end of every shoot, it’s also Nat’s role to pack down and leave the studio as though she was never there. “I love that every job is a new challenge and I learn something new each time,” she says. The life of a set designer and stylist is transient, where every job and every day is different, but it’s the fleeting moment of time to capture beauty that keeps Nat inspired.

Click here to view the Mercedes-Benz Genuine Collection.