Module 4:

Overview of Event requirements

In the past 3 modules we’ve delved into the world of the event designer and what they do. We’ve seen

how important the creative and design processes are and how they work to develop design ideas and

the impact of those ideas on the people who attend the event. We’ve talked about the client – designer

relationship, presentations and how feedback keeps the design process on track. In this module 4 it’s

time to move into the pre-production and production stages of the project.

In this module we’ll cover putting your Team together, Sourcing Materials and the Budgeting process,

why it’s important and how you’ll go about doing it successfully. We’ll investigate working with floor

plans, what that means and what it has to do with the design process in general. Finally we’ll get to

explore in a little more detail, working with design software, what you might use, and how you might

use it.

What you’ll learn in this module:

4.1 Putting a team together,sourcing materials & budgeting

4.2 Working with floor plans

4.3 Using design software

4.1 Building a team, sourcing materials & budgeting

In Module 1 – planning, we had a brief overview of the planning stage of the process and what that

entails. Now we’re going to move a little deeper into this stage and focus more on what needs to be

done and how you might go about doing it. You may remember we covered the importance of finding

and putting together a great team to help you. If you don’t already have a good team of people, you

will need to find the right people for the job and make them part of the crew.

Every event designer will need a great team of people they can call on to help during the pre-

production, production, installation and completion or post-production stages. It will take time and

experience to build the right team but you’ll have to start somewhere and the more research and

investigation you do the better.

The Team

Your team will be made up of people you need to get certain jobs done at different stages.

Depending on the scale and type of the event, you will need different people to fit the different tasks

required. Your team may not be a full time team but will mostly be people you hire for specific

services.

An example of some people you might want on your team could be:

Printers

Set builders

Props makers

Electricians or lighting specialists

Transportation/logistics

Audio visual specialists

Staging specialists

Talent agents

IT specialists

Caterers

Event equipment hire specialists

Floral designers

Cake decorators

You probably won’t need all of them, all of the time and on every job but it’s a great idea to find out

who they are and if they have a good reputation. It’s a good idea to call them to find out more and

perhaps introduce yourself and send off your business details or contact numbers and a profile of

what you do. This is a great kind of networking because if you know these people and you know

they’re reliable, it will make your life so much easier when you need something specific.Who you

have on your team, will depend on the types of events you decide to specialize in, or if you decide to

be a gun for hire (freelancer) and try your hand at anything. If you’re the latter, you will probably

need to use all of those people on the list. But even if you specialize, you’ll need many of those

people at some stage or another.

Let’s test this out and see who you might need on your team for different types of events.

A wedding

If you’ve been hired to design & style a wedding you might need: Printer Lighting Audio visual Floral design Caterers Event equipment hire

Set builder Prop maker Talent agent

Of course, who you need on the team will depend on the scope, scale and design brief for the wedding

not to mention your budget.

A corporate event

If you’ve been hired to design & style a corporate event like a special meeting/conference, you

might need:

IT specialist

Audio/visual

Printer

Catering

Lighting

Floral design

Prop maker

This will largely depend on the organization/company, brief, style and desired outcomes of the event.

A festival

If you’ve been hired to design & style a festival, depending on the type of festival, the general

team members you may need might be involved in: Staging Set building Prop making Printing Audio/visual Lighting Pyrotechnics (the art of fireworks and explosive visual effects) IT Specialist Talent agent

What you need will depend on a number of things due to the diversity of festivals. It will also be

dependent on the scale, scope, brief and budget.

Having a good working relationship with the people you decide to team-up with will be crucial to

the success of the projects you work on. You can’t do the job on your own even on a small event, so

having people on your side, ready to help when you need them, will make things run

more smoothly. After you work with the same people over a period of time on different projects, they

become like family. This bond makes for a professional, efficient and most of all, enjoyable working

relationship. If you’re difficult to work with, you’ll find it tough to manage or keep any team together.

This can make it very problematic in getting the job done and will take a heavy toll on your ability to

deliver.

Sourcing materials

In your career as a professional event designer, you’ll have to source all kinds of materials at every

stage of the process. Many materials, you will use over and over and there will be some materials

you never dreamed you’d ever have to source. Event designers have to be multi-

skilled and multifaceted or versatile – Yes another skill! You have to be able to track down things

that are sometimes difficult to find, just so you can get that, “something special”.

Sometimes sourcing materials will be as easy as checking the yellow pages or tapping into Google and

making a quick phone call or order. For some materials, you will have regular suppliers that you can call

at any time to order the stock, or just take a trip down to the high street and explore your favorite shops

for what you need.

If it’s something special you’re after this could be a little more challenging and may require

some online research, calling everyone you know for information and anything else you can think of to

try and find what you want.

As with building your team, building up a list of suppliers or materials that you will often use is very

important. It also gives you the chance to network, explore discover and make new friends in the

industry. It will also help you build your reputation as a professional and a totally nice person to do

business with.

The Budget

It’s probably best to mention this first – In the event world, there are generally speaking, no standard

budgeting systems or formulae/procedures when it comes to event design. Suffice to say, in

the tender/proposal process, the designer who can offer the most bang for the allocated buck will most

likely get the job and will have to work with that element of the overall event budget.

However, depending on your business model, whether you have your own company, work for an

existing company or go it alone as a freelancer, your budgeting requirements will differ. One thing that

won’t change however is, that all your design work will have to stay within budget.

In the event business, the budget is king or queen, depending on who’s in charge. Whether you have

your own budget or you’re given a budget to work with, you’ll have to stick to it, or even better, come in

under budget. As we mentioned in previous modules, the budget can come during the planning stage. If

you’re given a basic budget it will be revealed before you’re given the job and you’ll then decide if you

can take the job on.

If you’re given a budget – the amount you will have to spend – and you decide to take the job because

you know you can produce something good for that amount, you will have to break that down into

your design budgeting during the planning stage and then work within it.

Another situation might be that, you have your own company and someone comes to you for

your specialist services. You’ll consult with the client, get a general idea of what they want and how

much they want to spend and give them a quote for your services based on that. You may have

a standard fee for your services plus expenses.

Whatever the scenario you may find yourself in, you will have to be savvy enough to work out the best

way to spend the budget you’ve been given. Whatever happens, it’s very important you know exactly

what the budget is before you begin the creative process at conceptualization stage.

Once you know how much you have to work with you can begin the creative process, constantly keeping

in mind the parameters or limits of the budget as you go. Before you even begin this you should break

down your own design budgeting system.

Budgeting

Everyone in this field has their own method of budgeting and because the event design

industry is as diverse as it is, it comes as no surprise there are no budgeting

standards, unlike in the film industry for example.

Once you’ve been given the job and the budget you’re to work with, it’s a good idea to do

a budget break down according to each stage you will go through. Good rule of thumb

would be to develop your own system and separate each stage from pre-production to

production then installation and completion or post-production. With each stage you’ll

then decide what team members you’ll need, what materials, your fee and any

contingencies/incidentals.

For example you could work it like this:

Use a spreadsheet and label each stage then break each one down. The more detailed you

can be, the better because this will help you stay on budget and identify any potential

problems. You can also do a best case - worst case scenario as an add-on, so you can track

things more clearly and stop any blowouts, or overspending, before they happen.

4.2 Working with floor plans

Once you have your budget and you’ve done your design budgeting breakdown for each stage,

working with floor plans will be factored into the initial concept stage right through to installation.

You will have to refer back to the floor plans at every stage to make sure everything is going to plan

and everything will fit the way it’s supposed to.

In this section we will take a brief look at working with floor plans, what they are, what that actually

means and how they affect the design process through each stage.

What is a floor plan?

Floor plans can be a basic or specific layout of the venue you’re going to work with, depending on

the scope of the event. They may vary in detail depending on the scale of the event and the venue.

You may be given these by the client or you may have to source them from the venue yourself.

They should have all the information you’ll need, so you can design within the venue parameters.

The floor plans should have information such as:

Size with measurements

Height with measurements

Shape

Any special permanent features, such as stages, balconies, orchestra pits - with measurements

Access doors with measurements

Escape exits

Lighting, sound and electrical specifications

Loading areas with measurements

Foyers and booths with measurements

Existing permanent furniture with measurements

Pretty much, when it comes to floor plans, the more detailed they are the better it is for you. You

don’t want any last minute surprises at installation stage. You should also call the venue, arrange to

do a walk through and take pictures. You can print these off and pin them to your wall for constant

reference during concept and design then compare them to the floor plans.

What working with floor plans means to you

Floor plans are very important to the event designer because they tell you everything you need to

know about the venue. Before you even begin your conceptualization you need to know what the

venue is like.

You’ll need to know:

How big it is

What shape it is

How high the ceilings are

What windows and other fixed features there are

What lighting it has

What the electrical specifications are

What special features it has

Anything that might affect the design, production and installation of your work, you need to know about

before you create it. The venue and the floor plans may even provide some inspiration for special

features and other design elements you might not have thought of before.

The floor plans provide access to the world you’re going to be working with and they can allow you

to make the venue an active character in your design. Working with something is always much

better than working against it, so if you have information you can use to aid that process, brilliant!

How floor plans affect the design process at every stage

Now we have an idea of what floor plans are and what they mean to the event designer, it’s time to

learn how floor plans will affect the design process at every stage. Floor plans are an extremely

important reference right from the initial concept/design phase in your pre-production stage, through

to the production stage and then on to installation and possibly even post-production.

Pre-production

In pre-production you’ll begin your concept and design of the event. Although this is the initial

creative phase of the entire process, having the floor plans will be crucial. Before you start working

on any part of the creative process you’ll need to know the “world” your designs will be in and in this

case it’s the venue. You may have already been to the venue for a walk-through, taken some

photos for further reference and perhaps even absorbed some inspiration from the experience.

Often when you see a venue you’ll be working with, your creative juices will start to flow and you can

sometimes be inspired to come up with ideas based on its character or ambiance. This can especially

be the case with historical or unusually designed buildings. If it’s just a run-of-the-mill, plain function

center, you’ll have a totally blank canvas, so you can transform it with your magic.

Once you have some floor plans of the venue, you can use these as a reference for your concept and

design. The shape, measurements and other features, including access areas will dictate what you can

and can’t do. Access areas, such as doors and loading bays will have to be big enough for you to load

things in and out. Why is this important during concept? If you conceptualize and design a very large

feature and it won’t fit, you’ve just wasted a lot of creative energy not to mention money. nowing what

the layout of the venue is like will also help you with your basic design principles – remember balance,

proportion, rhythm, emphasis and unity? Balance and proportion could be the main winners here and

perhaps unity but they will all play a part overall. Any permanent features or fixtures at the venue

can influence your design work as well. If you have access to lighting and electrical information this can

also play a part in how you design certain elements and features.

Production

Once your design work is complete and approved by the client, you’ll begin to move into the production

stage. You’ll contact your team members and go over each aspect and element in your design that relates

to them. If for example you have a main feature that needs to be built, you’ll bring in your builder/

set/prop maker to discuss it and go over the floor plans. The builder will also need to know what the

venue is like and you may even give them a copy of the floor plans for reference.

Your event hire and transport logistics people will need to know about access and loading areas as well,

so they can be prepared and organized before installation. Any special catering as part of your design,

floral work, staging, audio/visual and lighting will all have to be briefed by you to your team using the

floor plans for their reference.

Installation

Considered part of the production stage, installation is another important phase where the floor plans

will be used. You may have taken the original floor plans and created an over-lay of your own design

map outline, where everything will be placed during installation. This will be an important guide as you

direct your team during set-up to make sure everything goes where it’s supposed to. If you’ve planned

properly, everything will fit through the access areas and slot perfectly into place on the day. You will

also have contingencies in place if something doesn’t go to plan.

The more your team know, the better prepared they’ll be and the smoother the operation will go:

Brief your team on your design and how it fits with the floor plans

Make sure all measurements are accurate and precise during production

Create your design map from the floor plans, so everyone knows where everything will go

Be sure everyone knows about access areas and loading bays

Make sure your audio/visual and lighting people are briefed on electrical systems

4.3 Using design software

In this section we’ll cover when you will use design software, how design software can aid in the

design process, what software is available and how you might utilize it.

We mentioned earlier that the design life cycle should always begin with a pencil, pen and sketch

book or note book. Designers need to be able to sketch to some degree so they can get the ideas

out quickly during the conceptualization stage. It helps to free up the mind while you’re tapping into

your imagination. It gives you a freedom to express on paper in a quick rough way and explore

and experiment with different ideas uninhibited or naturally. You have less to think about other than

your random ideas and this is the perfect place to start.

When you have some good concepts you can continue to develop your drawings and help them to take

more form.

Once you’ve developed your ideas more you can then go to the computer and polish them up with

design software. We also mentioned briefly in earlier modules about different types of software a

designer might use. Design and graphics software are great tools to aid in the design process because

they give you more options to play with and are easier and quicker to incorporate color, textures, text

and special effects if you need them.

You can even use 3D modeling to get a better idea of shape, space and the look & feel of your designs

and how they will work. Often designers use a number of different software for different elements and

put everything together later.

Some design software you might use could be:

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe InDesign

Vivien Virtual Event Designer

3D Event Designer

It’s really up to the individual designer as to what software they choose to use and it will depend on

what you need to use it for.

Adobe illustrator

Is great for creating vector images or illustrations, diagrams, logos, you can use photos for vector

tracing to create drawn images, you can even scan your sketches and trace those to clean them up for a

more finished art. Vector images are clean pieces or graphic art that can be scaled up or down in size

without becoming blurry or pixilated, like a photo would as you zoom in.

Adobe Photoshop

Is mainly used for photo editing and website design elements but it can also be used for poster design,

design layouts, tickets, place cards, banners, brochures. You can use Photoshop in conjunction with

Illustrator or you might chose to use one or the other.

Adobe InDesign

This software is primarily used for desktop publishing, so there are a number of things you can do with

this software. You can easily create posters, flyers, brochures, menus and even magazines.

You could use 1 or all 3 of these design software to develop your mood boards for a digital

presentation or create finished art for elements that might be needed for printing like posters,

banners, menus, tickets, flyers.

Vivien Virtual Event Designer

Is a specialist event design software package, which is perfect for planning, design and presentation

work. It can handle 2D and 3Dfloor plans and layouts. It has a large gallery of textures you can use,

virtual crew for layout of chairs and tables, Interior lighting design for atmosphere and even natural

light for day and night events.

3D Event Designer

Is another specialist event design software package and is perfect for creating 3D floor plans that

you can then add furniture, decor and much more. Everything is in high definition, so you can wow

your clients at presentations and also give your team a great idea of what you want during

production and installation.

Whatever software you decide to use, you’ll have a great choice. The more programs you learn to

use, the more versatile you’ll become and the more interesting your design work will be. Some of

these programs can be difficult to learn at first but if you put in the time and effort it will certainly pay-

off later on. It’s a competitive industry, so the more things you know and the more things you can do,

will help give you the edge over the next person going for that job.