Stage Designs

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.

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.

Hargrove used red, orange, and yellow drapes accented by purple top hats and lighting of the same shades from PSAV for the main stage of the grand ballroom.

Oversize white balloons hung above the John Street stage, which had a long red runway and cones that lit up throughout the show.

Boston chef Lydia Shire now hosts interactive cooking classes for private groups of 12. The three-hour sessions cost $3,000 and take place in the open kitchen at Shire's restaurant, Towne Stove & Spirits.

New York's Pink Powered by Moss is putting the finishing touches on its new Wave Form units. The 4- by 4-foot curved, stackable cubes made from an aluminum-tube frame and stretch fabric can be used to create textural backdrops, walls, and towers.

The first-ever food truck from Chicago's E. Leaven Food Company specializes in an impressive range of breakfast, lunch, and dessert items, including short rib piewiches and chopped salads, and can provide catering for meetings and events for groups of 10 or more guests. Most menu items cost less than $10 apiece.

Scarlett Entertainment (281.900.4176, scarlettentertainment.com) now offers site-specific outdoor aerial dancers for events. Available nationwide, the artists use aerial and ballet techniques to perform across the face of buildings and can incorporate silks, ropes, zip lines, bungee cords, and partner balancing tricks.

For a client or employee gift, wrap up a copy of Eating Las Vegas: The 50 Essential Restaurants (Huntington Press), $12.95, with picks from local dining critics and authors John Curtas, Max Jacobson, and Al Mancini.

New Los Angeles-based rental company Yeah! Rentals (323.522.3843, yeahrentals.com) specializes in mid-century furniture, like Eames chairs and Knoll sofas, as well as pieces by local, independent artisans. Their inventory is available for delivery throughout Southern California and can accommodate as many as 500 guests.

Orlando's ConceptBait Global Events & Floral Design Group has several new additions to its “Liquid Metals” linen collection. The wet-look spandex, which fits over armless chairs, now comes in silver, gold, and titanium hues, and starts at around $5.25 each. Coordinating table covers will roll out soon.

Coral Morphologic (coralmorpho logic.com) is teaming with the Miami Science Museum on a multimedia project to be displayed at the Miami International Airport, where high-definition screens will showcase corals as living art forms in digital aquascapes. The installation is meant to build excitement for the museum’s new $275 million facility opening in 2015.

Toronto's Glory Hole Doughnuts (gloryholedoughnuts.com) has been garnering buzz with flavors like maple bacon, chicken and waffles, and lemon meringue. The supplier can deliver as many as 300 handmade doughnuts or 500 “Lil’ Glories” for events.

In an effort to prevent large staging and exhibit structures from ending up in landfills, Arlington, Virginia-based design firm Beth Singer Design (703.469.1900, bethsingerdesign.com) is developing modular staging systems that can be reused, reconfigured, and resized. The portable, lightweight frames are easily customized with a variety of wrinkle-free fabric skins.