Since the hologram-like projection of Tupac from the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival went viral in 2012, its innovator AV Concepts has repeated the stunt. At this year's Rock the Bells festival, dead rappers ODB and Eazy-E appeared to take the stage.
A new art piece on this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival grounds called "Mirage," envisioned by festival art curator Paul Clemente and created and executed by experiential design and media company Pearl Media Productions, took the form and architecture of a mid-century Palms Springs mansion, standing at 40 feet tall, 80 feet wide, and 100 feet long. A total of 12 zones of high-tech HD projections made it appear that changing activities were taking place inside the home's rooms and its pool. The project required 18 gigabytes of custom content and more than 70 facets of individual video over the course of the six-day festival.
In 2010, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Lynda & Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion opened with a masquerade gala for 1,000 guests. Art from the Resnick's collection came to life by way of projections under the dinner tent.
As an eye-catching way to show off his new line of street wear in 2012, rapper Lil Wayne used virtual images rather than fabric to outfit a display at fashion expo Magic. The booth on the crowded show floor of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center included two blank mannequins that New Jersey-based company Pearl Media clothed in outfits from the Trukfit collection using 3-D projection mapping. Virtual images of brightly colored T-shirts, patterned pants, and baseball caps were shone onto the white figures, which had shorts, trousers, shirts, and hats molded to their shapes.
To mark the 25th anniversary of Shark Week, Discovery hosted an event in 2012 that put sharks in the pool of the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. They weren't real, of course, but served as convincing projections devised by the planning and production team.
In October, the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong celebrated its 50th anniversary with an 800-guest bash. A 3-D projection on the building's façade told the story of the hotel's history, starting with its 1963 opening and detailing its development as a global luxury brand.
When Spain's Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel planned its opening party for the 2013 season, the team brought in French production company High Scream to make the 12-hour party memorable—and highly visual. High Scream’s Romain Pissenem worked with XL Video's Ian Woodall to develop an idea for a projection mapped onto the hotel’s 30- by 20-meter swimming pool, which would become the largest-ever projection screen to date in Ibiza.
In September, Paramount Home Media Distribution hosted a party at L.A.’s California Science Center in celebration of the DVD/Blu-ray release of Star Trek Into Darkness. The Production Elements-produced party had the dramatic built-in decor benefit of NASA’s retired space shuttle Endeavour. And Kinetic Lighting projected a space scene all around it using a combination of digital projectors and moving lights fitted with custom glass gobos.
In 2009, the Annenberg Space for Photography opened in Los Angeles with a tented party where a dramatic scrim hanging overhead showed a kinetic display of still images.
At the Warner Brothers International Television Distribution gala in 2012 at the Warner Brothers Studios lot, digital mapping by Bart Kresa covered the back lot buildings with dramatic projections, including fiery images that furthered the event’s pyro-centric themes.
The line between movie magic and reality was hopelessly blurred at the Warner Brothers party for the American premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2007. Following the film's screening, 900 guests found themselves reimmersed in the wizard world of ancient castles, prophesies, and enchanted fireplaces for the premiere party. In one area attendees could lounge under a ceiling that featured alternating projections of clouds dotting blue skies and stormy weather.
For Walmart's shareholders' meeting earlier this year, Rabbit Hole Creative worked alongside Drury Design Dynamics to create a dramatically mapped stage set that added to the visuals of the annual event held in Arkansas.
The Sequoia-produced and designed Governors Ball drew inspiration from nature, interpreting the theme into a glamorous look that included massive vertical garden walls from Mark's Garden and a starry ceiling designed by Larry Oberman in association with ELS. The event's copious plants and greenery came from GreenSet.
Cheryl Cecchetto of Sequoia Productions executed the “romantic rhapsody in red” theme at the 2012 Emmys Governors Ball in Los Angeles with a giant rose concept and copious amounts of the color.
Stoelt Productions upped the excitement for the 2012 Clio awards after-party at New York’s American Museum of Natural History by flooding the event with red lighting.
The 2012 Pencer Brain Trust Gala in Toronto used flamboyant orange hues to support its edgy, rock theme.
Even cocktails at the 2012 Pencer Brain Trust Gala were infused with the color.
Billy Butchkavitz’s design inspiration at HBO’s 2009 Golden Globes party in Los Angeles came from the colorful “emotional architecture” style of Luis Barragán and vintage ’60s textiles. Butchkavitz washed restaurant Circa 55 and the adjoining pool area at the Beverly Hilton in a banana yellow animal print.
Torches floated on lily-pad-like structures in the Beverly Hilton's pool, which reflected yellow decor elements from HBO’s 2009 Golden Globes party.
Lush canopies of natural greenery popped against neon green Lucite tabletops at the Museum of Modern Art’s 2013 Party in the Garden benefit in New York.
At the Greater Washington, D.C., chapter of the National Association for Catering and Events’ annual fund-raising gala in 2012, the Emerald City Lounge was aptly colored and had an eerie feel.
Blue lighting and sequined tablecloths made for a striking look at Ronald McDonald House Toronto’s holiday season gala in December 2012.
Event planner André Wells designed the 2010 Washington Ballet ball around the gala chair’s favorite color. Nearly every shade of purple was used in event, dubbed the “Purple Rain Ball.”
Spoons of Eastern Shore crab were passed on lavender serving trays at the 2010 Washington Ballet ball.
More than 1,200 guests donned white garb for the fresh concept of Dîner en Blanc’s flash-mob-style dinner in New York in 2011.
At UrbanDaddy and Stoli’s launch event in New York in 2012, a pure white room was later transformed into a playful and colorful space as guests painted on the walls and lighting projections filled the room.
At Marc Jacobs’s final show for Louis Vuitton at Paris Fashion Week in October 2013, a set filled with escalators, a fairground carousel, a fountain, and more was rendered in all black.
Inspired by the “power of the press” shown in season 2 of The Newsroom, designer Billy Butchkavitz used a black-and-white newsprint palette for the show’s 2013 premiere party in Los Angeles.
