In 1999, event design, fabrication, and rental firm Blueprint Studios got its first gig designing the San Francisco Symphony’s Black and White Ball. “At the time, decor was very kitschy and theme-y,” says Mircea Manea, 37, who owns the company with co-founders Francisco Recabarren and Paul Moss. “We decided to take a refined, less-is-more approach.” It caught on.
Last year, Blueprint brought its signature style to 2,000 trade shows, meetings, and high-profile events for clients like the San Francisco Ballet, Veuve Clicquot, and VMware. The majority of the company’s dizzying (and growing) inventory of more than 1,500 furniture and prop designs are built in-house and created to be more than just pretty. “Everything is built with aesthetic in mind, but also utility and sustainability,” Manea says. Items are easy to deliver and take up minimal warehouse space, and many of the pieces are designed to be reinvented with skins, programmable LCD screens, modular accessories, and interchangeable fabric inlays.
Currently, Blueprint is focused on expanding its line of stylish furniture pieces embedded with media and touch-screen technology products. “As owners, Francisco, Paul, and I want to foster an environment that encourages everyone from our seamstresses to our carpenters to look at the process and share their ideas for how something can be made more event-friendly.”