Welcome to the Mod Scenes podcast. This is your host, Stephen, and I’m thrilled to talk to you today about customization and stage backdrops. Uh, today, actually, we’re going to talk to you about the event in Alaska that we’ve been working on customizing for our great friends at co-design. So O design has worked with us for, uh, for about a year and a half now. Uh, they are a design design firm and AB provider based out of the Denver area. Uh, they’re super nice guys, Stephen O’Connor over there, uh, has massive experience with, uh, providing really great solutions for his clients, um, and we’ve loved being able to serve them. Uh, so, uh, actually check out his, if you haven’t checked out his website@odesign.com, uh, really great, uh, really great stuff.
So, um, let’s
Get into the specific, uh, event that we worked on. Uh, they were working on for him. So, uh, we have an event, uh, that we were helping within Alaska. Uh, so, uh, obviously a little, a little of, a little bit of a travel, uh, as particular of it was an Anchorage. Um,
So, uh,
What we wanted to create an Anchorage was at two things. So the first was the main stage backdrops. So this is the stage backdrop for the general session. Uh, we wanted a really clean look, uh, with, um, a polished feel, um, but some of the playful elements that came from the client art. So, uh, the client’s art was a really cool mountain scape, uh, with different shades and variations of blues. Um, there’s also a polar bear and, uh, some wind elements that, uh, kind of fluke that kind of, uh, went around the mountain. So there’s a larger mountain with colorful blues and whites. Um, there’s also some trees, uh, I think I mentioned the polar bear, but if not, there was definitely a polar bear. Um, so yeah, so there’s quite a few really cool elements, um, that we wanted to, and then obviously a horizon that was really beautiful.
Uh, so we want to play off some of those elements. Um, but obviously we had to keep it within a reasonable budget for the event. Uh, and we had to also consider the shipping ramifications because shipping to Anchorage is crazy expensive. Um, so, uh, we were able to, uh, come up with a really good setup for the general session. Uh, so we’ll start with a general session in there. We, uh, created a backdrop using our lattice and lateral panels, uh, and canvas panels. So canvas is a solid square panel. Uh, so everything started from stage, uh, stage right move to stage left. Uh, all of our, we use lattice panels, great, an angular, uh, angular look, and a lateral panels and canvas panels to create a Stripe down the center that ran from the top, uh, the top stage right corner to the bottom stage left corner.
Uh, and within that space, we also included a custom logo that we printed across multiple panels and a nice blue, um, and then the rest of that was used for, you know, biting to catch lighting and really give some visual space, uh, to do for the other elements that, uh, all described next. So in addition to the, um, the lateral backdrop and, uh, the, the, the solid backdrop we did for the event, there was also a mountain element. So this mountain is a, was a, uh, printed, um, a printed, uh, fire-rated Coroplast that we did everything fire ready for PLAs to save on shipping costs. Uh, but we did a printed, um, printed mountain, uh, using different variations of light blue and dark blue. Uh, we took the clients’ original, uh, art file and, uh, pulled inspiration from that. Uh, we actually pulled the original mountain view and went through and made some adjustments to it, uh, to maximize the, uh, the sizing and the sheet, the sheet layout of that to maximize our client’s impact while minimizing his cost.
Um, in addition to making that really cool mountain, uh, the polar bear and the artwork was a dark blue. So we did it and made a custom polar bear with a couple of little Stiggins that held them up. Um, and he broke down into small two foot sections, uh, and he was a dark blue that follow the artwork. Uh, we also made a spare one that was just a plain white, uh, so we had options once we got on site. Um, so in addition to that general, uh, in that general session room, we also, uh, made some trees, uh, that built off of the, uh, design of the trees and the artwork. Uh, so those were standing trees. They were, uh, they, uh, they slid together to create a single, to create single trees, which was really cool, um, and helped us to minimize on hardware.
Uh, so that saved us quite a bit of money as well, uh, on shipping because we didn’t have to send heavier, uh, element of stands. We were able to just use the plastics, uh, plastics properties that are already there to, uh, hold everything up. So, um, so that was the main general session room. The backdrop that we made consisted of, uh, about a hundred panels, uh, it was, uh, 12 foot tall by approximately 30 foot wide. Uh, and the mountain itself, uh, was, uh, was supported by our ground support stands and a couple of feet forward of the actual main backdrop, uh, as was the polar bear. And then the tree stood by themselves and were kind of scattered around everything. Uh, and then as I mentioned, there was a custom logo that was, uh, that was hung. It was actually hung right in front of the, uh, the, the lateral panels.
Um, all right. So, uh, in addition to that main general session room, uh, Steven and the team at O design have this really cool thing that they do, where they projection map, um, kind of like a giant, uh, the best way to think of it as a giant billboard for the event out front, uh, in the lobby area that you can do photos with and really kind of get some, uh, it gives, gives a lot of energy to coming into this event. So, uh, we, uh, referenced that as our area too, that was specifically, uh, the light form area. So a light form is a projection mapping software. It’s just, um, it’s a really cool software where utilizing, uh, the, uh, light form receiver and your standard video projector, you can project onto a surface and life form will kind of help you. We’ll help you to outline the different surfaces, giving you the ability to essentially video map, uh, specific sections in a really easy to use user-friendly way.
Um, and they use it like nobody’s business. It looks incredible. So they’ll go through they’ll use life form, uh, to, um, to grab sections of the different, uh, grab sections of the different scenic elements and put different content on different sections to see the Goldman’s. It looks just absolutely incredible. So, um, we also have a light form in our shop and we’ll be working on using, using it pretty soon to, uh, showcase a couple of things you can do with it. Uh, so once we do that, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll do another podcast and we’ll do a couple of YouTube videos about it, uh, so you can learn more about it. Um, so in addition to that, um, well, more in-depth to that I should say. So their stage backdrops, um, they accredit a second stage backdrop other than your main general session stage backdrop, which was their light form area.
So this is out there main lodge, the main lobby of the convention hall. Uh, so again, we, uh, built a backdrop that consistent consisted of lattice and lateral panels, um, on a, on a similar angular, um, angular slant to give, uh, to give us a really great, uh, visual and to kind of tie the two together. Uh, again, we duplicated the mountain, obviously we scaled a little bit, so it was a little bit smaller. The total height for this, for the, for the light form area was about 10 feet. Uh, and the projection area was about eight, 10 by eight, essentially. Um, so about 10 feet tall, uh, eight foot tall, 10 foot wide. Uh, so we use lattice and lateral to make that angular section. Uh, we did, uh, uh, uh, custom printed logo with the client’s name, uh, and a dark blue across there.
Um, and then we, uh, we also did a, uh, another mountain. This one was white, so there’s no print on it too, so that they could go through and selectively map out the different sections of the mountain, because the mountain was actually more of a mountain scape. There were multiple mountains within the mountain, uh, the mountain piece. So it was like four mountains, four or five mountains that they could individually map. Uh, there was also a polar bear, again, all in white, so we can map in, uh, there was a logo, uh, actually, I’m sorry, the logo wasn’t in blue, it was in white, so that we could, uh, so that we could also map that and put different content on the actual client logo. Uh, there were more trees that could be mapped. Uh, then there was a couple of towers, uh, using one of our new designs that twigs design.
So it uses an interlocking X type layout so that the tower is not like a square or a triangle, but an ex, uh, he used two ways all the way up at, uh, which was, uh, in the inner walk, which is a pretty cool, uh, design. Uh, and then outside of that, we did some triangle towers with, uh, our lattice panels. So it was a really, uh, visually interesting piece looked incredible. Um, but one of the other, uh, so further down that, um, you know, see the stage backdrops was, uh, was a really cool custom piece. Uh, it was a lot of cuts. There was some custom pieces, but there was also a lot of stock pieces. So we spent about $2,000 on, um, on, we spent about $2,000 on customization. So quite a few printed pieces, custom logos, custom trees, custom polar bears. Um, but there was also a lot of stock panels.
So most of, most of the sat with the exception of about a single box panels will go back into their inventory and they’ll be able to use on different shows. We actually have a second show in Minneapolis, that’s plan a that we’ll be sending this set design to afterwards. Uh, we actually, and we help them figure out the specific amount of pieces because they already had some of the, some of the pieces. We figured out the specific pieces. They would need an addition, uh, based off of what we had already sold them as inventory. Uh, so whatever panels they needed in addition to that, and we also helped them figure out, uh, as they transfer the product from, uh, Anchorage to Minneapolis, uh, how many would need to go with them, um, and kind of customize, uh, the process to make sure that we were getting them what they needed, where they needed it, um, and saving them, trying to save them as much money as possible.
Uh, we also, uh, explored different shipping options, uh, for their event. So being in Anchorage, uh, there’s a limit on shipping options. Uh, Anchorage was much better than a lot of other parts of Alaska, but specifically in Anchorage, uh, if you’re trying to ship, uh, via, via FedEx, which our main supplier for shipping, um, there’s a lot of, uh, there’s not a lot of options that are cheap. Uh, today is the actual today. Air is the cheapest way to get it there, uh, via FedEx, uh, that worked out to about $2,000. So we found a couple other options, uh, ups ground can be shipped kinship there for about half of that. So about a thousand dollars for the setup, seven boxes, total. Um, but the issue with that is ups brown to Alaska is about nine days. Um, with this event, the, our timeline didn’t allow for that much time.
Uh, so we were able to find, uh, through USBs, um, sending, sending everything three days via USBs came out to, uh, uh, actually under $500, which is quite amazing, uh, considering it was seven boxes with a total weight of over 150 pounds. So, um, it was really incredibly able to get it there for that price. Uh, we were actually thinking, uh, based on our conversations and doing research, and it would be a lot closer to seven or $800 in shipping. Um, so yeah, so that’s another way that we serve the serve. Our clients serve the co-design and, uh, Steve and his team. Um, so, and it included with all of the, all of these custom pieces we mentioned is, uh, we included directions and drawings, so they know how to put everything together when they get it onsite. Uh, because the first time it will be put together is actually in our shop.
So they wouldn’t have an opportunity to look at it, uh, other than the directions we built for them. Uh, and with each of those directions on the back of every panel was a number. Um, so we made a really easy system where the numbers matched up to each other. So number one, matched up to number one, uh, number two, match up to number two, and there was directional arrows to make sure that the panels were all facing correctly. Uh, um, so it was as simple as matching one-to-one to, to, to, as you build, uh, to make sure that your sets built out really easily. Um, and the same went for, you know, for each individual element. So the mountains, the polar bears, uh, the printed mountains, the custom logos, uh, all of it was really simplified, uh, to make their lives super easy on site.
Um, so they could easily build, uh, this point, uh, this relatively complex looking site without a prior, uh, prior, without prior knowledge of doing it or prior action doing it. Uh, so yeah, so really, really great, um, way to a really great what we serve them by customizing in that way, making sure that everything was built in a way that, uh, serves them well. So, um, that’s a little bit about how we were able to serve oh, design and, uh, Stephen and his team, uh, created some really cool stage backdrops, uh, using some custom elements and also some stock elements. Um, so with that, I would love to invite you to give us the opportunity to serve you. We would really love to help you with your next, uh, corporate event, stage backdrop, your church stage backdrops. Uh, we would love to help you find a perfect solution, uh, to, to fit your needs, um, and, uh, to figure out how to do that within the budget that you have a lot. So, uh, reach out to us. You can reach out to us at our website, monsoons.com. Uh, you can also shoot us an email. Um, my email is Stephen monsoons.com and I would be happy to chat through your needs and figure out how we can serve you best. Uh, don’t hesitate to let us know how we can serve you. Thanks again for tuning into the Mod Scenes podcast. And I’m thrilled to chat to you next time about some more custom stage backdrops options and how we can serve you best.
Recent Comments