Inspiration: Great Rentals & Purchases for your St. Patrick s Day Event

EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
Irish Dancers
Get a little Riverdance up that joint. The Seattle Irish Dance Company is available to perform at events of any size a great addition to a St. Patrick s Day community gathering lineup. Not in Seattle? No worries, Gigmasters.com has an entire section of its site devoted to regional Irish dancers-for-hire.
Big Parade-watchin Screens
Showing the St. Patty s Parade to a few thousand attendees? You ll be needing a jumbotron, like this one from Mobile Technology Graphics. You get pick up one of these bad boys on its own for outdoor and indoor use, or mounted on a truck with a foldout stage for outdoor viewing. Screens this big will make sure the guys all the way in the back can see every leprechaun on every single float.
Custom Pot o Gold Coins
Chocolate Impressions and plenty of other swag providers does bulk personalized coins made from quality chocolate. Customize the front and back of the foil with your event s logo or your own art / message, throw everything into some gold mini-buckets, and you ve got a sweet, easy, over-the-rainbow giveaway.
Green Beer
All ya gotta do to turn your beer green is add a couple drops of food coloring to each glass, but if you want your beer to stay fresh and frothy, this might be difficult to do in large quantities in advance. One way to spare your bartender the hassle of adding the drops to each pour: you can purchase powdered dyes and add a tiny amount to the bottom of each beer glass in advance. This doesn t work in high-humidity areas in that case, you ll have to go drop-by-drop.
LED Inspiration: Innovative, Clever and Beautiful Event Lighting Ideas

EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
Decibel did a little review on the 2014 Country Music Awards a few months ago, drawing attention to the LED video wall behind Dierks Bentley during his performance of Drunk on a Plane . We said it and we meant it: get ready to see a lot more LED-everything, and particularly LED wall backdrops, in 2015 and beyond. We dug up some videos showing some interesting, experimental or just plain pretty approaches to LED walls get ready to get inspired.
Po-motion Interactive Projections
Ripley Window Display in Peru from PO-MO Inc. on Vimeo.
The folks at Po-motion have created software allowing event producers to create custom interactive projections. The video above shows a window display in Peru with an shattered rippling effect that engages when someone walks by, but you could just as easily project games, smoke, and other neatness on your surface. The possibilities for engagement and staging are endless.
Notevarp Design VJ
Oslo Trend 2014 LED Wall from Audun Notevarp on Vimeo.
Created by Notevarp for the Oslo Trend 2014 Digital Fashion Festival, this ultra-modern, monotone line-art video graphic reel is a great backdrop for a high-fashion event.
Pavegen
Pavegen Video Compilation II from Pavegen Systems Ltd. on Vimeo.
Pavegen is a floor tile that converts the weight of your footsteps into electricity. The video s a bit long, 18 minutes, but worth the watch if you re interested in cutting-edge ways to power spaces at your next event (sound cuts in at around 1:00). As the latter portions of the video shows, while Pavegen has plenty of practical uses, it can be integrated in ways that take it beyond the realm of practicality and into the realm of art. And the best news for event managers? It takes about an hour to install on a raised-floor system, meaning it can plausibly be hooked up and broken down quickly. Skip to 8:00 to see a few awesome event-ready applications.
GTEK S Series Flexible LED Panels
GTEK S Series Flexible Panel from Telematics Canada on Vimeo.
From Telematics, a GTEK manufacturer and distributor: GTEK recognized an inherent limitation in all flexible LED panels in the market. Pixels that begin a set distance from each other on a flat panel will spread apart to a greater distance when the panel is reconfigured to curved shape. To solve this issue, GTEK Engineers created a unique method to keep those pixels evenly spaced
Tent Rental Ideas for your Outdoor Event

EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
I don t have to tell you that outdoor events can get a little risky, particularly during volatile seasons: can t no man predict the weather. But there s more than one way to keep the rain off a party: Here are a few types of shade and sun protection that might suit your shindig.
We can hook you up: the plug
Before we launch into the tentspiration, let us drop a reminder: if you re too busy to deal with tenting, you don t need to go this alone. Decibel s got a national vendor network of our own, and we know all the right questions to ask in terms of getting your event all tented up. Give us a call, and we ll happily oversee all the details for ya. Okay, onwards:
Clear Tents
Got a great view and don t want to obscure it? Get a tent that gets out of your way. If you re around CT or NY, Stamford Tents does gorgeous transparent structures that keep everyone dry and warm while preserving the great outdoors vibe. Their portfolio has some beautiful usages of see-through tenting, including a city skyline rooftop deployment and some lovely open-field tents with wood-paneled flooring.
Sail Cloth Peaked Tension Tents
Get some Camelot up in that biz with peaked tension tents crafted from light-passing sail cloth. The sail cloth material is ballin at night, when lighting fixtures set beneath the canopy create a gentle, warming glow. This is a particular looker around dusk, so if your event is going to span nightfall, consider splurging on this approach. Sail cloth tenting is often water-proofed (though you should still double-check this one), so you can have your cake and stay dry, too.
If you re in the northern or central GA area, hit up Goodwin Rentals (their picture above).
Moroccan Frame Tent
Alibaba Events specializes in nationwide rentals of Arabian-nights type tents for your Bollywood-style outdoor lounge area.
Tension Shades
Need to cover some square meterage with minimal central supports? Sperry Fabric does some ultra-modern Berlin-architect-y stretched sun shades in a variety of shapes. From the well-covered horse s mouth:
The use of turnbuckles, cables, and catenary curves allow us to cover large areas with little if any center support. Those three aspects of working with tension contribute to a uniformly taut finished product. Tensile structures can be free standing or incorporated into a building s landscape. Our tensioned covers whether large projects like that at Williams College, or small tensioned awnings for a home patio often use varying levels at the corner anchors which create a slight twist in the fabric.
Holiday Event Production: 5 of the Best Christmas Rentals for Large-Scale Events

EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION, TIPS & TRICKS
December is upon us, and with it, the yearly infusion of last-minute holiday parties, winter fairs, holiday concerts, and all things Christmas. It s pretty easy to track down decor and extras for small-scale get-togethers, but the must-haves for commercial-level shindigs are a whole nother deal. Here are Decibel s tips on where to get the best holiday rentals for your end-of-year events.
Carolers a la Dickens
It ain t no Christmas without Christmas carols. If you happen to be in the New York or Tri-State area, you can call on one of the longest-standing Dickensian carol performance groups, who show up in full period-appropriate costume and Christmas the heck the out of everything with their fa-la-las. Their clients include Macy s, Bloomingdales, the Waldorf-Astoria and other seasonal heavy hitters, plus they get invited to the White House like, every year, so you know they re super legit. If they re all booked up or you re not near New York, check out The Christmas Carolers, a nation-wide caroler-booking agency.
Snowflake Backdrops
Need to add a Christmas vibe to your indoor or outdoor stage? Atomic Design, one of America s best stage design companies (and naturally, a Decibel vendor), brings the winter spirit with their Yeti Flake backdrop, a modular holiday special solution that can be assembled into panels, columns, or superwalls. Add backlighting for Christmas win! Not sure what to ask for? Call us we ll help you sort it.
Fake Snow / Winterland Environments
When you need a LOT of snow like, industrial-grade Christmas-in-July style snow you call Snowmaking by STURM. Snowmaking by Sturm sports an impressive portfolio of projects that includes work on major motion pictures, commercials and town-center events, so you know they got the chops to pull off just about any idea. They do clean-up free simulated falling snow, massive snow-fields, ramps and winter environments for marketing campaigns.
Rent-a-Santa
The big guy himself has his hands full this time of year, and event producers have to rely on temporary stand-in Santas to help spread all that joy around. The biggest Santa-for-hire agency in the US is actually a popular sub-service of the temping website Gigmasters. They offer Santas for just about every location in the US, and their website includes a great search feature where you can find the perfect Santa for your sleigh.
Ginormous Trees & other City-Center Decor
Epic department store trees, commercial properties covered in twinkling lights, giant plastic ornaments hanging from four-story ceilings yup, you will be needing a specialist. The Christmas Decorators have a lot (no really, a lot look at their portfolio) of experience decking the halls of restaurants, hotel lobbies and town square.
You Are Here: Pretty Wayfinding Maps

EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
Did you know there s a whole field of study about how to help people get around? It s called Wayfinding . There are agencies that specialize in it, and it seems like one of those fields that you ve never heard of but when you think about it, of course it exists and of course it s necessary. How do people find their way around buildings and interior commercial spaces? Malls? Subways and airports? What do they need to know to get where they re going? When and where should signage be placed? The several times that we ve organized the National Book Festival, attended by over 100,000 people, it was vital that we clearly informed people how to get to the tents they wanted to get to, and we have garnered a special appreciation for nice You Are Here maps.
With Wayfinding, design must first give way to clarity. Something can be clear and ugly, but it must be clear. Obviously, the best projects are both beautiful and clear. Check out this collection of a few of the pretty and thought-provoking wayfinding projects from Behance:
Skyrim Riften Map, Chelsea Butts
Bless the gaming community and their endless enthusiasm. This exceptionally clear top-down 2d map was made of a fictional district from the video game, Skyrim.
Subic Map, Jo Malinis and Raxenne Maniquiz
Another lovely 2D creation, and a bit more complex than the first example, this area map was created for the 2014 Ad Summit.
Reynolds Performing Arts Center, Robert Eugene Sidwell
This one is lovely because its so adult. Designed in a slight perspective and using a lovely soft palette against a computer-generated-level-design feel.
Norwegian School of Creative Studies Wayfinding System, 4 Collaborators
An interesting approach to the use of 3D renderings that draw a realistic sense of space in the viewer s mind.
Suburban Map, Anna Giulia Spagnulo
Ooh! Look at the great illustration on this one. This map walks a great line between beauty and clarity, without falling back on Swiss design.
Festival Map, Estel Martinez
A faux-3D illustrated map concept, showing each unique festival space individually. Larger-than-life extruded objects focus the eye on the important bits.
Five Fabulous, Creative Ways to Serve Fresh Fruit

EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
With the season winding to a close, help your guests catch the last tastes of the summer fruit bounty. We selected five simple and unique ways to serve flavorful fruit, all of which are easy to make in large party serving sizes.
Skewer It: Fruit Bouquets
Those Edible-Arrangements-style fruit flower bouquets are much easier to create than they look, offer a healthy dessert option while doing double-duty as table decor, and everyone loves them. All you really need is some melons, some sticks, and some cookie cutters (a melon baller and some chocolate, too, if you re feeling fancy). You can liven things up with grapes or chunks of apple, strawberry or pineapple as well. Watch the video recipe.
Stuff It: Stuffed Figs
It s always such a score when you run across one of those foods that s both decadent and simple. Fresh stuffed figs taste like a Roman orgy is happening in your mouth, are easy to eat and even easier to make. They are not, however, incredibly cheap unless you or your food service vendor has access to fresh figs in bulk, and they don t keep for long periods of time, so they must be made day-of. See the delish.com recipe
Roll it: Fruit Sushi
Fruit sushi (yup, someone already combined those words into frushi ) has all the hallmarks of an outstanding party dessert. Sweet, unique, lovely to look at, and it makes great finger food. There s no one way to do fruit sushi some recipes use a marshmallow base for the rice, some recipes plop the fruit on top, some put it in a roll, some make real sushi and simply add fruit to it the possibilities are numerous, so we ll provide a few different links here.
- Food Network: Fun Fruit Sushi Recipe
- Pinterest: Fruit Sushi Recipe Listing
- How to Make Gorgeous Fruit Sushi for Dessert
Photo from Jamie Oliver
Jelly It: Fruit Jellies
Clear fruit jellies are one of those desserts that look so stylin , you think you need a PhD in Culinary Arts to approach them at all. Truth is, they only have a couple of ingredients (so they re cheap!), they can be made in advance (so they re convenient!) and they take very little time to make (so they re easy!). Most recipes call for a dash of Prosecco to be added to the gelatine mix for that neat bubble effect and a touch of flavor. They can also be made in small individual servings, or as one big, gorgeous fruit gelatin. Here are a few different recipes:
- Summer Fruit, Elderflower and Prosecco Jelly
- Elderflower and Raspberry Jelly
- Summer Berry and Lime Jellies
- Prosecco and Summer Fruit Terrine
Grill It: Grilled Bananas and Pineapples
Already doing burgers or fajitas? Save a corner of that grill for the fruit. Grilled fruit particularly pineapples and bananas are suffused with a smoky, grown-up flavor. They also dry out a bit as they cook, making them easier on the fork (and on the front of the shirt). Here are a couple of neat recipes:
Mobile Media Tour Inspiration: Great Vehicle Wraps and Mobile Billboards

EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
Vehicle wrapping is an artform. At its most basic, we re talking printing out a billboard on removable vinyl and cutting it to the shape of your bus, food truck, SUV, etc. Highly customized and creative work involves thinking with the shape and outline of the vehicle and using those shapes to create optical illusions or other attention-grabbing advertisements (Need something done? Give us a shout, we can wrap anything).
We re loving the stark, manly modernity of this Bacon Bacon food truck wrap, printed by Wraps1.com.
Hats off to the minds at YKCR / Y&R Advertising Agency, who came up with this genius wrap for a local Irish Music Festival. Using the natural structure of the vehicle as a canvas, YKCR created a natural accordion with articulated buses.
Printed at Australia s Graphic Art Mart, this clever mobile ad makes it appear as though the bus has backed into a street sign a sure way to attract attention.
This super eye-catching wrap concept was never actually printed, but was submitted to the (now defunct) 2007-2008 Rhino Rolling mobile ad awards.
Created by the vehicle-wrapping Einsteins at Vector Media, this whale bus isn t just wrapped on the outside: the inside was also painted pink like the inside of a whale s mouth, and the dangling passenger handle grips were shaped like whale teeth.
Nice Ice: 6 Functional and Unique Ice Sculptures

EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
Just when you thought the whole Princess Elsa thing was over, we dug up these awesome indoor ice sculptures sure to give you chills. Oh man. Sorry. Puns are the WORST.
PLAYSTATION Ice Sculpture from Jack Whiteley on Vimeo.
This video, produced by Jack Whitley, is an inside look into the process of creating a giant Playstation gaming controller ice sculpture. The sculpture was created by the talented folks at Glacial Art, based in Liverpool, one of the leading ice sculpture companies in the UK.
Carvers extraordinaire Brice and Brice from Alaska the use a lathe they custom-designed themselves to carve martini glasses out of ice.
LA Ice Art created this awesome paddle wheel boat that was later filled with ta da appetizer shrimp. Great creativity.
Something about this table-top biking ice sculpture by Indiana Ice Studio struck us as unique. It s well-crafted and clear, but the angles and style feel modern and almost abstract. Who says ice sculptures are outdated?
Hooey, these guys are awesome: based in Baltimore, MD, Icelab does some industry-topping work. Above, a picture of one of their creations: a series of faceted ice gems mounted on strings to create a beaded ice curtain.
Neat idea by Las Vegas Ice Studio: Japanese temple ice-carving sushi server!
A/V Inspiration: 5 Amazing Video and Light Art Installations

EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
If you re familiar with some of our audio-visual work, you ll know Decibel has done some interesting projects in the past on projection / facade mapping, and we frequently draw inspiration from cross-disciplinary visual artists. These five videos are stunning examples of using light and video to create brilliant and artistic spaces. May they inspire you in the creation of a unique visual environment at your next event.
BASE Video Installation
Set up in 2006, this psychadelic video installation from Lima, Peru, plays with the viewer s perception of space, its dimensions and limits. It will not just be the physical space where he stands, but also of his condition as a reflection of society. The video illustrates how the effect was achieved, using mirrors and videos projected onto the floor.
320 LICHT | SPATIAL EXPERIENCE from URBANSCREEN on Vimeo.
320 Degrees Licht Spatial Experience
Created by German installation large scale projection design group URBANSCREEN, the 320 Degrees Licht Installation uses the cathedral-like beauty of the Gasometer Oberhausen as the starting point for a fascinating game with shapes and light. Within a radius of 320 degrees graphic patterns grow and change on the 100-metre high inside wall of the Gasometer.
The observer experiences the interplay between real and virtual space, in which the Gasometer seems to dissolve into its own, filigree structures and yet finally always reverts to its clear shape.
LIGHT CANVAS 2 from Joanie Lemercier on Vimeo.
Light Canvas 2 by Joanie Lemercier
This exceptional work is more than an installation: it s like a gallery and an installation combined into a light-augmented environment. Light Canvas, by artist Joanie Lemercier, is a series of paintings enhanced by cleverly projected light. The results are magnificent and endlessly inspiring.
Vanishing Point from United Visual Artists on Vimeo.
Vanishing Point
Created by United Visual Artists: Vanishing Point employs perspective as both tool and visual outcome to reshape, redefine and represent a space. Inspired by sketches of Leon Battista Alberti, Leonardo DaVinci and Albrecht D rer, UVA sends lines into space from an arbitrary vanishing point, creating different volumes, divisions and rooms to be explored by the audience.
advection | robert seidel | projection on a water fountain | lichtsicht biennale 2013/2014 from Robert Seidel on Vimeo.
Advection
Holy moley we love this idea. Artist Robert Seidel created a projection over the mist of a water fountain, pairing it with intense audio. Maybe a bit heavy-handed for a fundraising soiree, but the idea of projecting light visual on water is very enticing.
Event Design Inspiration: Gorgeous Place Settings to Inspire You

EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION
Sometimes you just gotta look at beautiful things to get the ol synapses firing. Here s a selection of some gorgeous settings from Flickr Creative Commons.
East Coast Beach
Umber Earth Tones
High Contrast Ceramics
Presidential
Country Gypsy
Rustic Nautical
Image Sources: East Coast Beachy, Umber Earth Tones, High Contrast Ceramics, Presidentia, Country Gypsy,Rustic Nautical