A three-dimensional version of the Google I/O logo offered a popular photo op area—and included the event's #IO18 hashtag.
Photo: Courtesy of Google
Organizers drew inspiration from wayfinding and line management tools at well-trafficked theme parks. “Wayfinding was the most obvious and apparent thing from the minute you walked on campus,” explained Google’s Amanda Matuk. “Everyone understood exactly where they were and where they were going at all points in time.”
Photo: Courtesy of Google
Maisonette’s Mural Unveiling
Children’s boutique Maisonette celebrated its first birthday and the launch of its new editorial platform Le Scoop on June 20 with a public mural unveiling at Brooklyn Bridge Park. The mural, which is on display through July 2, was created by artist and children’s book author Oliver Jeffers and is inspired by his book Here We Are. Sponsored by Baby Bjorn and Mustela, the mural features bold arrow that points to an open space for people to pose on one side. The other side of the mural features a blue, jewel-toned sky with constellations as an old-fashioned guide map.
Photo: Samantha Deitch/BFA.com
Be Inspired PR’s Tassels & Tastemakers networking event, held May 31 at Casita Hollywood in Los Angeles, had an upscale outer-space theme with some starry ideas that are also appropriate for Fourth of July-theme events. On one wall of the venue, a series of stars featured the names of guests who had donated to the event’s Make-A-Wish fund-raiser.
Photo: Brandon Kidd Photography
Facebook Consumer Booth
Facebook participated on the community floor for the first time this year, creating a public booth activation highlighting creators including Huda Kattan, Laura Clery, Julius Dein, 80Fitz, the Crazy Gorilla, Nala Cat, and Doug the Pug. The booth featured a series of rooms where fans could pose with on-theme props and backdrops.
Photo: Courtesy of Facebook
Retailer Sally Beauty had a carnival-theme booth complete with acrobat performers, games, and a miniature Ferris wheel of products. A branded photo backdrop featured illustrated black and white hair with red combs; guests sat in a spinning hoop to get their photos taken. The activation was designed and built by Conversate Collective.
Photo: Zack Whitford/BFA.com
Shhh Silk, which creates silk pillowcases designed for better skin and hair, worked with Balloon Celebrations to create a sleek photo backdrop of silver and white balloons. Extra balloons were on hand for guests to throw in the air, making for memorable photo ops.
Photo: Zack Whitford/BFA.com
Target Beauty used swings in its booth, which the brand tapped MKG to design. Oversize paper flowers in shades of orange, yellow, and red filled the area.
Photo: Jakob Layman
Kiss Cosmetics had a simple but on-theme backdrop for photos, featuring hanging paper lips.
Photo: Claire Hoffman/BizBash
A colorful backdrop for Rimmel London featured streamers in various shades of red and gold.
Photo: Claire Hoffman/BizBash
Louis Vuitton x FIFA World Cup Pop-Up
On the field, a hexagonal structure that resembles the World Cup ball includes a reflective interior surface for snapping selfies.
Photo: Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
MTV 'Cribs' Booth
The kitchen fridge led to a secret tunnel constructed from pool noodles, as well as a fish wall installation where the fish said phrases such as “Okkkkuurrrrr” and “It’s T-Shirt Time!”
Photo: Courtesy of MKG
Twitter Green Room
In another area, a giant illuminated hashtag created a fun—and on-theme—photo op.
Photo: Courtesy of Twitter
Guests were encouraged to take the Slow Food Climate Pledge and pose in front of the photo wall.
Photo: Courtesy of Danone
American Express Experience
An installation of fabricated palm trees with streamers in multiple colors invited guests to write their best advice for living a happy life.
Photo: Taylor McIntyre/BizBash
Bud Light Dive Bar
A multicolored marquee sign welcomed guests to the activation and also served as a popular Instagram moment.
Photo: Taylor McIntyre/BizBash
The show entryway featured an attention-grabbing wall of more than 1,500 balloons from Balloonzilla, an Orange County-based company that creates custom balloon art for events. (The company also designed last year’s memorable balloon canopy.) The wall of green, white, and magenta balloons—which tied into the expo’s overall color scheme—was complemented by marquee letters from Lights for Nights. In addition to light-up letters, the Southern California-based company can provide chandeliers, uplighting, lanterns, gobos and monograms, LED crystal garlands, and more for events.
Photo: Haute Photography and Videography
Pepsi Generations Concert
Pepsi celebrated its summer music campaign with a concert headlined by the Chainsmokers on July 24 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. The event featured a photo op installation of Pepsi cans that were arranged in the shape of a giant pair of headphones. The installation was produced by Live Nation.
Photo: Phillip Faraone
Designer David Beahm hosted a 20th-anniversary event in New York in March. Dubbed “A Riot of Color,” the evening asked guests to come dressed in their most colorful outfits, and an eye-catching step-and-repeat featured large, round collections of flowers on a wall of greenery.
Photo: Roey Yohai
The ninth annual Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic took place in June 2016 at Liberty State Park in New York. A floral wall used greenery to spell out the brand’s name and surrounded it with orange flowers and bottles of the champagne.
Photo: Courtesy of Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic
Forbes Travel Guide celebrated its 60th anniversary with a star-studded dinner in Beverly Hills in March. Designer Marc Friedland handled decor, and an elegant step-and-repeat floral wall formed the shape of a V—a nod to the guide’s “Verified” listings.
Photo: Courtesy of Forbes Travel Guide
Shoe brand Sole Society hosted a lunch at Marie Gabrielle Restaurant in Dallas in April. The influencer-heavy event had Palm Springs-inspired decor, including a simple-yet-eye-catching floral photo backdrop.
Photo: Courtesy of Sole Society
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2013 Costume Institute gala in New York, the staircase was flanked by oversize American and British flags made entirely of 150,000 red, white, and blue roses, designed to represent the punk movement's origins in New York and London.
Photo: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art/BFAnyc.com
Hair-product brand Creme of Nature hosted a launch event for four new products catering to women with natural hair last June in New York. The event featured a floral wall installation—conceived by Fluid Content and created by Summit Atlantic Productions—that was designed to look like a woman’s hair. The event was designed and managed by First and Last PR.
Photo: Tihany Luna
An ombré wall of blooms including cabbage roses and hydrangeas was created by Todd Fiscus for a Fort Worth wedding in 2015.
Photo: Courtesy of Sara Donaldson
The inaugural In Goop Health event took place in June 2017 in Culver City, California. A unique step-and-repeat embraced the day’s healthy theme: It was made of vegetables including lettuce, artichoke, radicchio, radish, red chard, broccoli, broccoflower, mini romaine, and wheat grass. The wall was created by floral designer Eric Buterbaugh.
Photo: Emma Feil
At the 2017 Revolve Festival, held at the Merv Griffin Estate in Indio during Coachella weekend, a photo backdrop included a bold logo against a vibrant tie-dye-like succulent wall.
Photo: John Sciulli/Getty Images for Moet
At the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic in Los Angeles in 2013, a 3-D arrivals area evoked a vintage flower stand with bottles potted as plants and logo plaques on wooden sticks growing up from moss.
Photo: Claire Barrett Photography
Wine brand Meiomi celebrated the launch of its new rosé in at a private townhouse in Greenwich Village in New York. Misty Copeland, a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre, posed in front of an intricate floral wall that combined roses and succulents, created by Ellen Robbin Creative.
Photo: Benjamin Lozovsky/BFA.com
Held in Beverly Hills in 2015, Hallmark’s TCA event had a 20-foot-long step-and-repeat made from plum carnations with cream-colored roses, hydrangea, and plum orchid accents. Along Came Mary Events produced and designed the event, and L.A. Premier provided the flowers.
Photo: Sean Twomey
Floral designer Michelle Tran, co-owner and lead designer at With a Flower, decorated the Ritz Carlton, Toronto, in 2015 with $80,000 worth of flowers for a personal engagement party designed to look straight out of a fairytale. One-thousand Pink Floyd roses lined the entryway walls and ceilings, while more than 25,000 gloriosa blooms decorated the walls, floors, and light fixtures.
Photo: Rebecca Wood
For a multi-day event at Resort at Paws Up in Montana in 2016, event designers EventWorks went for an upscale western theme. A decorative wall with hanging vases and greenery was used to mask the kitchen prep area.
Photo: Courtesy of EventWorks
At the Indie Beauty Expo, held in New York in 2016, a large paper flower wall served as the photo booth backdrop.
Photo: Taylor McIntyre/BizBash
Lollapalooza
The festival featured colorful backdrops for photo ops throughout the grounds.
Photo: Barry Brecheisen/BizBash
In a twist on the ball pit photo op, guests could lay in a pool of colorful Koosh balls, a popular ‘90s toy.
Photo: E. Geno Frazier/Langley Avenue
Another photo opp at Rosewood Bermuda included a floral arrangement shaped like hearts.
Photo: Meredith Andrews Photography
One of the most popular photo boxes was a three-sided floral wall.
Photo: Courtesy of AGENC
A photo booth in the Wells Fargo "Equality" lounge showcased the company's sponsorship of an exhibit at the Newseum opening in March 2019, called "Rise Up: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement—50th Anniversary (1969-2019)." The photo booth featured a backdrop of newsprint with headlines from the time period, accented by a neon rainbow.
Photo: FotoBriceno
Guests posed in front of a wall covered with 3-D flowers from Lexus. Walton Isaacson also led the activation for Lexus, with production help from Living Color Design.
Photo: FotoBriceno
In the Beauty Garden, attendees are invited to pose with signs in front of a floral wall with Sicilian blood oranges, highlighting a key ingredient in Swisse's Hair Skin Nails Liquid Ultiboost product.
Photo: Brad Barket/Getty Images for Wanderlust
Guests can get personalized product recommendations using an interactive digital platform, which also provides the option to purchase products onsite.
Photo: Brad Barket/Getty Images for Wanderlust
Target Beauty partnered with MKG to design a swing set photo booth at Beautycon. Guests could sit in pink swings against a branded backdrop made of oversize paper flowers in shades of yellow, orange, and red.
Photo: Zack Whitford/BFA.com
Retailer Sally Beauty built a carnival-theme booth at Beautycon that had a black-and-white illustrated backdrop representing hair strands. Guests were invited to sit on a spinning aerial hoop to pose for photos.
Photo: Zack Whitford/BFA.com
Delta Air Lines' Pre-Grammy Party
Guests entered the celebration through an installation of hanging gold records.
Photo: Tyler Curtis
