Birthday

In honor of the 2012 Kids’ Choice Awards nominees, BOP and Tiger Beat hosted a gift lounge; GBK used colorful ribbons to divide the large ballroom space at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles.

At an Art Institute of Chicago gala in May, Kehoe Designs covered the ceiling of an all-white lounge area with hundreds of clear balloons.

Guests of the first Camp Groupon weekend stayed at the Swissôtel Chicago from July 6-8. Kehoe Designs spruced the venue up with thematic decor including lifesavers, boat paddles, and bundled logs.

Upon arrival, guests got official Camp Groupon bags stuffed with goods from sponsoring companies.

At the hotel, sponsors Coors Light and Leinenkugel hosted nightly happy hours. Guests sipped their beers in camp-themed lounge areas that had tables with faux built-in bonfires.

A photo area at the Swissôtel had a woodsy backdrop.

On Friday night, campers watched a screening of the Blues Brothers movie at Wrigley Field. The thousands of guests—who included Camp Groupon members and other locals—were encouraged to don sunglasses in honor of the movie character Elwood Blues. Ultimately, the group set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of people to wear sunglasses at night.

On Saturday, the campers set out on different activity tracks that let them explore the city. Some guests opted to learn acrobatic skills at the local outpost of the Trapeze School of New York.

Other popular activities included a trip to the Chicagoland Skydiving Center.

On Saturday night, guests headed to Navy Pier for a private concert from the Counting Crows and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

A central bar at the concert doled out Coors Light beer, popcorn, and other snacks.

After the concert, guests stepped outside to get an up-close view of the fireworks at Navy Pier, which go off every Saturday during the summer.

The block party took place inside and around the Cooper Classic Cars gallery, with food carts, two bars, and picnic tables for guest seating. For a refreshing treat, guests sipped on "adult icies," or shaved ice spiked with vodka, by People's Pops.

The venue was outfitted in the brand's signature colors of black, white, and orange, with silver accents. Several promotional posters decorated the walls, and abstract, chandelier-like fixtures in bright colors hung from the ceiling.

Perhaps the most raved-about component of the block party was a pool that producers built on the sidewalk. Model and brand ambassador Chanel Iman was on hand to interact with guests.

As a way to spark interaction, guests received permanent markers to sign the wooden deck surrounding the pool.

Guests could participate in several games, including bean-bag toss, ping-pong, and chess.

Attendees sipped on refreshing cocktails, including spiked lemonade and a drink made with watermelon and vodka.

The barbecue station offered grilled corn, mini beef or mushroom burgers, and hot dogs.

Several food carts were spread out throughout the event's footprint, offering small baskets of French fries and several taco options, including steak and fish.

A baked-goods station had sweet bites, including mini brownie squares, sugary doughnut holes, and bite-size chocolate chip cookies.

For entertainment, producers brought in a hula-hoop-dancing duo from Groovehoops. The pair took turns dancing to tunes on a platform with LED hoops.

As a fun way to promote sunglasses, Relevent brought out performance artist Joey Arias who sported a skirt-like shelving structure to display the products.

The Style Tour truck and pop-up shop was on-site to give attendees a chance to try on and purchase their favorite styles. A large prize wheel allowed consumers to spin and win percentages off their next purchases.

Confetti System built a festive wall that was hung in the main display window of Openhouse Gallery.

The split-level layout of the NoLIta site allowed Fresh to create a lounge-like section at the entrance, which was separate from the main space. With the white walls and large skylights on premise, no extra lighting was necessary for the event.

Various sizes of unique floral arrangements of local offerings from Brooklyn-based Saipua were scattered throughout the venue. At the entrance was an oversize birthday announcement piece by R. Nichols as well as three 4- by 8-foot panels that represented limited-edition soap wrappers for Fresh scents sugar, patchouli, and Hesperides grapefruit.

As a unique way to allow guests to create their own drinks, Fresh installed a wall of drink tanks, two- by two-foot clear containers that each held five-and-a-half gallons of liquid (or roughly 123 glasses). Each tank held a different type of juice, including summer-mixed citrus black tea, pomegranate hibiscus, rosemary-infused grapefruit juice, cucumber basil, and strawberry lychee.

After filling flasks with one of five juices from the drink wall, guests could take their cups to the bar where bartenders mixed cocktails.

Situated at the far rear wall of the gallery was a 28- by 11-foot wood frame wall with a foam-core center that mimicked a large bulletin board. Graphics displayed on it represented the brand's 21-year journey, while dozens of inspirational design and fashion books were stacked haphazardly with Fresh products resting on top.

Potted flowers and topiary created a pleasant and transparent view into the open kitchen, where chefs presented finished dishes on a plexiglass tower that guests could grab from.

To reflect the brand's request for the food served to reflect four distinct cuisines—Russian, Asian, Italian, and American comfort—Shiraz Events turned the back room into a "tasting plate" experience.

Raising tables and chairs stood near the open kitchen, allowing guests to it and sample the prepared foods. Brand signage and atmospheric imagery peppered the walls as decoration.

Papabubble candy makers created custom sweets for guests to take home, with flavors for the treats inspired by the natural ingredients used in Fresh products.

Fresh brought stationery company R. Nichols to the event to create personalized Fresh-inspired note cards for guests as a keepsake. As part of a collaboration, Fresh will be selling special note cards designed by the company, featuring the silhouettes of Fresh founders Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg.

To celebrate 21 years in business, Fresh built a gifting bar where guests could select products from each year since the brand's beginnings. Packages were messengered to attendees the following day.

Turning an event's invitation and program into a comic book is a relatively easy way to add colorful visuals. Vintage cartoons inspired MacKenzie Brown's design for the Medical Research Institute Council of the Children's Memorial Hospital's Children's Ball in Chicago in 2010.

As part of the Smirnoff Experience series of events in 2010, Mosaic Experiential Marketing placed graphic illustrations in the windows of Toronto's Andrew Richard Designs. The illustrations depicted comic book characters arriving at a party, mimicking the arrival of guests on the red carpet.

New York's Robin Hood Foundation, which hosts one of the largest and most successful benefits in the city, tapped contacts at DC Comics to help create a superhero theme for its 2011 gala. The planning and design team created an emblem and slogan—"the forces of good are gathering"—that marked the night's invite and main cocktail area.

In 2008, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute staged an exhibition timed around the release of The Dark Knight titled "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy," which served as the design springboard for its preview gala. With the help of the movie's set designer, Nathan Crowley, the planners placed 20-foot-tall statues of superheroes the museum's Great Hall.

Large-scale industrial props can help set the scene—and make guests seem small and powerless. At the Los Angeles premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man in June, Sony Pictures placed a 16- by 22-foot web-like metal structure on the red carpet and at the party.

Staffers are a big part of setting the tone at events. For Maxim's superhero-inspired Super Bowl party at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, servers wore capes and black masks.

Columbia Pictures washed the first floor of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with green-hued lighting to give the space a glowing, moody look for the Los Angeles premiere of The Green Hornet in January 2011.

Comic-book-style images can be turned into live installations at events. Animated graphics and videos at the 2011 Robin Hood Foundation gala, helped add energy—and eye-catching decor—to the cocktail area of the 3,000-person fund-raiser.

As most superheroes fight crime in big cities—Gotham, Metropolis, and the like—a city backdrop, real or computer-produced, adds something extra. For the 2007 premiere of Spider-Man 3 in New York, Columbia Pictures used backlit panels to depict the skyline.

The 2008 Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Toronto's Big Night Out benefit reminded guests of the night's superhero theme by placing them on the tables. The design team created colorful centerpieces by placing images of original comic book characters in tall plexiglass boxes on stands.

Funky entertainment and Batman-like decor dominated the Hope and Help Center of Florida's annual Headdress Ball in 2006, where the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate served a white chocolate Catwoman with a licorice whip for dessert.

Primary colors are a distinct part of any superhero's costume, and that visual inspired the monochromatic menu for Raw's industry party in Toronto. The architectural firm passed items such as Parisienne potatoes topped with blue-dyed whitefish mousse and blue sea salt, beef tartare with beet-dyed horseradish in heirloom tomatoes (pictured), and chicken salad with green peas and pesto in green pepper cups.

The Robin Hood Foundation created graphic, superhero versions of the presenters for its 2011 gala, including host Brian Williams.

To make the guests at the Los Angeles premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man premiere feel like superheroes, Sony Pictures erected a climbing wall inside the party.

As a playful way to extend the night's motif to the bathroom, the organizers of the 2010 Smirnoff Experience in Toronto placed decals with small dots and speech balloons on mirrors to give guests' reflections a comic book effect.