Signage

The signage for the wild mushroom profiteroles bore the warning "contains walnuts."

In July, a bright gobo of Thrillist's logo was splashed on the side of Chicago's Mid nightclub, one of the venues the lifestyle Web site used for its weekend-long experiential venture known as Hotel Thrillist.

At Target’s 2015 launch event in New York for its Lilly Pulitzer collaboration, guests entering the event space found directional signage promoting the #LillyforTarget hashtag—as well as providing directions to offerings such as a juice stand.

The Golden Globe awards are known to bring a crush of parties all under the roof of the Beverly Hilton on one night. Directional signage on flatscreen monitors in the lobby during the 2014 events directed guests to the various parties, minimizing confusion and delays as well as the necessity for staff intervention.

At the inaugural Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas in 2013—and at every incarnation since—the goal has been to facilitate a sense of inclusivity and positivity among festivalgoers. To that end, staffers held signs to show they were available to answer any questions, including directing guests to their destinations within the event that spanned 15 city blocks.

Helium-filled Zygote balls, which were printed with sponsors’ names, changed color when touched at a retail conference.

At Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs event in 2014, organizers eschewed a traditional red carpet in favor of stairs leading to the event space emblazoned with a custom typography message bearing the name of the occasion.

In its first year in Canada, 2014, the TED conference decked Vancouver Convention Center's stairs with color-blocked sections printed with the conference's tagline, "The next chapter starts here.”

Saveur hosted its Summer BBQ in New York in 2014. To get attendees excited about what would greet them within the outdoor culinary event, the words "cocktails," "sweets," "photo booth," "music” and others decorated a staircase.

Each year, E3 takes over multiple halls in the Los Angeles Convention Center, as well as its lobby areas and on the plazas outside. The show and its vendors take over stairs for marketing and branding, as in this example from 2013, which used both the stairs and surrounding columns.

Cole Haan took to New York in 2012 to introduce its Chelsea Pump, marketed as a shoe that can be worn late into the night. As part of the brand’s “Don’t Go Home” campaign, it hosted dance parties at a venue where the stairs bore messages announcing reasons to stay out late.

Event designer David Beahm used votive candles in a snaking pattern down the the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s stairs for a private corporate event.