9 Innovative Stage Designs for Concerts, Award Shows, Conferences, and More

Inspired by an explosion, illuminated acrylic structures expanded out from the center of the main stage at the Much Music Video Awards in Toronto in June.

To draw attention to its latest tortilla chip flavor, Doritos built a structure that was designed to look like a giant vending machine, dubbed the “Jacked Stage,” at South by Southwest in March. Artists including Snoop Dogg performed beneath it.

The stage at E!’s upfront in New York in April had three LED screens overhead and three curvilinear walls on the platform. The central panel, which remained in place during the presentation, later slid aside to make room for musical acts.

For the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert in June in London, producers built the stage around the Queen Victoria Memorial and employed wraparound LED screens and IMAG cameras.

A 60-foot-long, multitiered stationary float covered with glittering fabric was the central decor piece at the Recording Academy’s Grammy Celebration in Los Angeles in February. Decor elements soared to 25 feet in the air from the structure, which doubled as a two-sided projection screen and carried 30 costumed performers, dancers, and drummers.

As part of the TED Conference’s clean, on-brand stage design, producers used oversize letters that spelled TED to serve as the stage’s focal point.

The set for Marc Jacobs’ fall 2012 show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week was inspired by Puritans and Pilgrims, with decaying multilayered grottoes made of Luan plywood composing the bulk of the 80- by 60-foot structure.

The Xbox E3 media briefing in Los Angeles in June featured a 35-foot-wide projection screen flanked by five LED screens, 11 high-definition plasma TVs, and a curved floor LED screen that pushed the content into the audience.

The Levi’s fall installation in New York's Fashion Week featured a 165-foot-long runway, with two catwalks—one covered with carpet to mimic a home, and a concrete-like one to resemble city sidewalks.