SCENIC DESIGN AND RENDERING FOR CORPORATE EVENTS
“I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.”
– Le Corbusier
In the events industry, we don’t often have the luxury of making adjustments onsite, so it’s important to get designs right on paper. That’s why my preferred workflow is entirely 3d.
I use the same 3d digital model for concept renderings, pre-vis animations, drafting, and collaboration with other design disciplines.
Spatial challenges are resolved in advance of construction; the design is communicated clearly and thoroughly to fabricators; and clients know exactly what they can expect to see onsite.
Scenery might be the most obvious thing you see when you walk into a corporate event, but it’s just one ingredient in a much larger effort. Most productions happen within a few days to a week, including load in, programming, tech, rehearsals, all presentations and performances, change overs, and load out. It’s a carefully choreographed dance, typically with several crews working in the same space on very tight schedule to meet rigid deadlines, so planning and coordination are key.
My clients are typically producers or production companies, and whenever possible, I like to work closely with the entire design and planning team, including writers, technical directors, fabricators, riggers, lighting designers, video designers and graphic designers to ensure that scenic solutions integrate with the entire production team’s efforts.
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
– Steve Jobs
Corporate event designs don’t “just” need to look cool. They have to meet budgets, fabrication schedules, venue and rigging restrictions, and a plethora of other constraints.
I spent five years as an in-house scenic project manager for a production company, where (in addition to designing), I got into the weeds of event production. I conducted site surveys, generated estimates and gear lists for custom and rental scenery, coordinated with fabricators, ordered materials and labor, hired and managed onsite scenic leads, and created installation schedules and task lists.
Though I’m rarely the “boots on the ground” these days, the deep understanding of production logistics that I have acquired in my career still informs all of my design work.