From Then to Now: TEDxCharlottesville

There are some events, conferences, & festivals in our portfolio that we are lucky enough to get to work on as they develop from year to year. One of our favorites is our local TEDxCharlottesville event! This is such an important event in our community and the speakers are always top-notch, so it's a welcome annual challenge to design an interesting stage set that serves this event's functions while helping to enhance the theme or underlying tone of the day's presentations.

 

2013

For TEDxCharlottesville's first year, we kept the staging rather minimalist & clean. This was our first go at projection mapping, so we went with some simple vertical rectangles to project content onto, and splashed colorful lighting onto the backdrop to create an engaging tableau.

 

2014

The next year, we took the projection mapping up a notch, using Wafer panels from Atomic Design to fill the stage and create a showstopping, high-impact backdrop. Jonah Tobias, a local animator & leader of the TEDxCharlottesville design committee, created beautiful projection content that complemented the tone of each talk.

 

2015

In its third year, we took a nod from the poster artwork, creating a more literal representation of the event's branding. We built custom set pieces from pipe and acrylic shapes, onto which we projected the speakers faces along with ambient content. We also used three projection screens to accommodate speaker content while keeping informational slides visible during each talk.

 

2016

In 2016, we switched it up and used our Absen LED panels instead of projection & screens. We placed one large LED wall with picture-in-picture graphics in the center of the stage, and used additional LED panels to construct realistic-looking "wooden" stage decor.

 

2017

Finally, this year we went back to basics with a single projection screen and two analog sculptural set pieces. The structure of the set pieces was an exact replication of this year's branding illustrations, and the pieces made a strong statement among an otherwise pared-down stage set.

We're honored to have assisted with this event since its inception, and our long-standing relationship & close connection to the show allow us to create innovative sets while maintaining a thread of stylistic continuity from year to year.

Event Design in After Effects

We've shown you how we use SketchUp to lay out event sets and create 3D models, and we've shown you how we use Photoshop to create more realistic drawings and renderings of our designs. But there's another tool that we use to enhance our creativity and prepare more thoroughly for events:

After Effects is a motion graphics and compositing program that we use to create animated video content for a variety of uses, from projection mapping to design visualization!

Sometimes we use After Effects to create custom motion graphics for use at events. If our client already has some graphics or event-specific visuals that they are working with, our creative team will work with them to expand upon those elements and create effective content for their specific application.

It can be helpful to see video content in use and get a better idea of how it will read in the event space, so sometimes we will use After Effects to drop the content into a rendering to get a realistic preview. Seeing the video play out in the space also helps us in our creative process, and sometimes gives us better ideas on how to use content to complement the set!

Sometimes we use this program to visualize the timing of the content and to coordinate transitions within the event. This is especially helpful in clarifying the run of show when there are lots of assets or screens to be managed.

These practices also help us to identify visual weak spots in the program that could use more "oomph", or to spot areas of the set that need separate content at a specific point in the program.

We love finding new ways to push our creative boundaries and continue to provide the best possible service for our clients, and After Effects allows us to better communicate our ideas and maintain a collaborative energy with your team. By integrating design visualization and graphics production into our creative process, we are able to offer full-service event production that reflects our clients' goals at every step!

Event Design In Photoshop

A few months ago, we showed you how we use SketchUp to lay out event sets and make more informed design decisions. Today, we're sharing another tool that we use to assist our clients and improve our team operations:

You may know Photoshop as the program you use to touch up pictures and create photo compilations, but it can also be used for a number of other applications! Just like SketchUp, we use it to better visualize our design ideas, but Photoshop gives us much more flexibility in terms of the visuals we create.

Sometimes we'll use Photoshop at the beginning of a project to compile ideas into a communicative concept board... 

Sometimes we use it to expand upon renderings, making them more lifelike and adding detail...

Some times we use Photoshop to drop designs into venues, when the venues are a bit too detailed to model...

And sometimes we even use Photoshop to design graphics for projection or screen display at events!

Whether we're using it to help visualize a design or bring a surface to life with cool graphics, Photoshop is one of our favorite tools for helping our clients produce great events! By integrating design visualization and graphics production into our creative process, we are able to offer full-service event production that reflects our clients' goals at every step!