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!

Projection vs. LED Walls

With so many high quality display methods available for showing content, it can be difficult to know which is best for your event and what will give you the highest impact at the lowest cost. Well, fear not - we're here to walk you through the pros & cons of our two major options, and when it is best to use each one.

Projection

• Great for transforming surfaces, particularly when ambient light can be controlled
• Easier to get a larger image
• More affordable overall

led walls

• Higher intensity, & visible in full sunlight
• Waterproof and easily implemented outdoors, regardless of weather
• Image is constrained to panels, but panels can be configured in many ways

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Often in small theaters, dark outdoor spaces, or enclosed tents where light is easily controlled, projection can be a great, cost-efficient way to display your content.

Take, for example, this tented dinner event. Projection is used here to provide a backdrop and add visual interest to a spandex divider within the tent. In this instance, projection allowed us to cover a large area using just a couple of instruments, and the image pops due to our ability to remove any ambient light in the space that might impede visibility.

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However, in spaces where there is lots of ambient light, LED walls can provide a higher level of intensity and maintain a clearer image.

For the conference shown here, important visual content needed to share the stage with various presenters who also needed to be well-lit. If we had used projection, the lighting for the presenter would have washed out the image on the screens. But by using LED walls, we were able to maintain the integrity of the image while still providing plenty of light on the speakers.

(Photos by Edmond Joe)

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Of course, you can always combine the two display methods to make the best use of each and create an immersive experience for your attendees!

For the Virginia Film Festival's Opening Night Gala, we utilized LED screens onstage and projected additional content onto the walls of the venue. This allowed the onstage content to make impact amongst a well-lit set, and allowed us to easily transform the walls of the space into interesting display surfaces using just a few projectors. (Check out our case study to see behind the scenes of this design!) 

(Photos by Amanda Maglione)

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Five Ways to Maximize Your Event Branding

With all of the time that you spend creating a strong brand for your company or organization, you don't want to miss an opportunity to leverage your brand identity and spread your message. Events often provide the perfect platform for driving that message home both verbally and visually! Here are a few ways that you can infuse your team's mission statement into your next event.

One way to bring your logo to life is with our custom laser-cut modular panels. Available in multiple sizes, these panels take light beautifully and can be combined with our translucent acrylic panels to create a sleek backdrop for your event!

Another way to show off your logo is with custom gobos! Gobos allow us to blast your logo onto virtually any surface, making them a fun addition to a party-type atmosphere. (Photo by Amanda Maglione)

Projection allows us to transform surfaces to your benefit, making your branding feel less like a set piece and more like an integral part of the space! Whether projecting onto the walls of the Jefferson Theater or on a spandex tent divider, this is an elegant way to incorporate your brand identity into an environment. (Top photo by Tom Daly)

One fun and trendy way of branding your event is with marquee letters! We know you've seen them in smaller sizes, but our 9-foot tall custom marquee letters add impact and charm to any event decor scheme.

Our new 2-foot Absen LED panels can be configured into different sizes and shapes of screens, giving you the flexibility to design new and interesting layouts for digital signage! Our LED panels are always a stunning addition to any event, providing the highest quality image and allowing you to add visual interest to the layout of your branding graphics.