GUEST BLOG by Bonny Katzman

Bonny Katzman, owner of BK Design, is a creative soul with a unique  take on just about everything. She has brought her perspective to the invitations she designs and branding she creates for events; it's no wonder they are consistently award winners. I'm inspired by her observations of the world around us. I hope you are too!

David Merrell

Lead designdawg and Creative Director, AOO Events / AOO Live

THE WRITING ON THE WALL

By Bonny Katzman

As we know, everything has been done before. So the question becomes -- how do you add your own twist? Take graffiti for instance. It’s an art form that dates back to pre-historic cave paintings and yet each generation finds new ways to make it its own.

The spontaneous look and feeling of colored marks has an unorganized energy and seems to be appearing in new formats everywhere, from a chic Parisian hotel room interior to the recent London debut of the largest graffiti installation. This is a perfect example of taking a style that originated on gritty exteriors and placing it in new environments to create a fresh experience.

French graffiti artist TILT created the “Panic Room” at the Au Vieux Panier Hotel in Marseille, France, where, as you can see, he painted half the room in graffiti, and left the other half completely white and clean. 

 

The concept of splitting a room exactly in half with color or pattern would add a dramatic touch to an event space. I love the surprise of a few touches of color falling into the white space.

If you have the time -- it's a little more than seven minutes -- this is a great video showing the progress of the room.

Karpo restaurant in King’s Cross enlisted graffiti artists to create the largest graffiti art on their building… 160 litres of spray paint were used! 

The result was not only chic, but was a great PR play. The contrast of classical architecture with contemporary hot colors and bold graphics is a stunning statement. Updating “old” with “new” always adds some spice. 

And once a trend is hot, you see it everywhere.

From high fashion...

to food...

to typefaces...

Grunge typefaces are everywhere! Above is a poster and access passes BK Design create for an event my client, Rapid7, a security software company, was throwing at the RSA conference in San Francisco It's a young, hip, mostly male audience, and they wanted to play off "Security Street," their new, on-line community. 

to branding...

Graffiti once again influenced my design with these branded pieces for an HP event.

to footwear...

This was a campaign put together with the Seventh Letter graffiti artist Risk for Osiris Shoes to create a new line of Risk shoes. Along with the shoes Risk painted this wall for an upcoming video to promote the new shoe.

 and above and beyond!??

Bonny Katzman

Bonny Katzman is an award-winning graphic designer with more than 30 years of experience in the creative industry. Her career began in New York City where she worked on corporate identity programs and annual reports for a wide range of Fortune 500 clients.

In 1996, Bonny established BK Design, an independent studio specializing in event branding and the design of unique 3D invitations and accessories for any celebration or event.Partnering with professional teams throughout the country has allowed BK Design to expand the scope of its projects to include tradeshow booths, collateral pieces, branding and web design.

Bonny has held various board positions for the International Special Events Society and has received more than 10 awards for her creativity and dedication to the field. Articles on BK Design have appeared in Exhibitor magazine, Special Events magazine, The Boston Globe, Meetings and Conventions magazine, RSID Views, and the books, Be My Guest by Rea Kirdar Sinda and A Passion for Parties by David Tutera.

A lover of both shoes and painting, her recent exhibit of oil paintings, Shoes, Heels and Soles in Newport, Rhode Island, was the perfect marriage of both. Travel, chocolate, bangle bracelets and Pinterest are her latest obsessions.

Setting the Stage with Architectural Inspiration

Architecture is one of my biggest go-to sources when I am looking for inspiration. It's one of the reasons I love to travel. I get to see different buildings, and get a ton of inspiration for the stages and sets we create at AOO Events, and now, through our new, live production division, AOO Live. Here are two stage sets that we produced and the buildings that inspired them. And, I've added a future inspiration that in the coming months will undoubtedly find it's way into one of our designs.

The Inspiration...
Fallingwater, also known as the Kaufman Residence, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and is located north of Pittsburgh. It is regarded as one of the most famous historic landmarks and feats of architecture for its daring cantilever design. True to Wright's work, it also becomes one with its surroundings, specifically, the waterfall below it. It's one of my favorites.

The Reality...
With Fallingwater as my inspiration, I designed this stage. You can see evidence of the cantilevered tiers in the ledge stone wall incorporated on top of the 10-foot-high stage. This is where we "hid" Liza Minelli before her reveal as that night's performer. The 10-by-50-foot wide waterfall was created virtually with video projection. A reed pond and large rocks in the foreground hid the projectors. While we could have done a real waterfall, it would have been too noisy and drowned out the orchestra.

An exact replica of the fireplace in Fallingwater also incorporated virtual elements, for obvious reasons. Video projection, scentscaping that added the smell of burning wood, and sound effects brought this fireplace to life.


The Inspiration...
One morning in Palm Springs with friends, as we were on our way to get coffee I turned to the right and saw this mid-century building. I pulled out my phone camera and took this shot. It became the inspiration for the stage design of the 100th Anniversary of Naval Aviation on the USS Midway in San Diego.

The Reality...
You can see the structure of that building -- the core of my inspiration -- clearly in this stage design for the heroes of Naval Aviation.

The stage also featured a center scrim that was backlit at certain times, such as dinner service, to reveal the band as it played.

The Inspiration...
I have collected many images of buildings, like this one of the Salk Institute. From this I already can see the beginning of an exciting future stage treatment! What do you see?

What Do You See?

Because we all see the world, and what about it inspires us, so differently, I thought I'd start this series called "What do you see?"

Here are two photos and what I see...

Swiss Romance

I'd love to be here! But what I see in this photo is a beautiful blend of gray, black, yellow and white. I LOVE how the yellow of the lighting pops out in this picture against a darkening sky. It will definitely be the basis for an event color palette of mine in the near future.
What do you see?

Shadow Play

This Jil Sander ad caught my eye. It is one of those magazine clippings that I've posted on my real-life inspiration board in my office. I see a shadow play. I LOVE how texture has been brought in with the backlighting of the lattice work. This is something I think could look terrific when translated to an event using a gobo projection.
What do you see?

Share your inspirations with me here, pin them on my Pinterest page (find me at David Merrell), or send me a photo via e-mail with a note about what you see. I'll collect the ones I receive via e-mail in a future blog post!

Redefining Your Space

There are times when we desire a lot of space, and then there are times when it's too much of a good thing. Usually those times are when, as event designers, we are faced with a huge venue and an event that warrants a more intimate approach.

There are many ways to make a space feel smaller -- lighting, props, and furniture come readily to mind. But first, it's important to consider the content of the event. By that I mean -- is there a center stage? Does the program and entertainment need to be seen by all? Then the solution is not necessarily more and larger props, but to redefine the space by adding a wall or dropping the ceiling so the guests' line of sight is not impeded.

Creative ways to "drop" a ceiling...

Using fabric and giant lampshades, my team and I at AOO Events lowered the ceiling of this expansive tent to create a more intimate event while not blocking anyone's view of the stage.

In this case, we used lighting. Or rather, we didn't use lighting. You can see here that just by strategically lighting the ceiling, keeping most of it dark, and using oversized chandeliers, we dramatically changed the feeling of this ballroom.

For an outdoor event, the use of stringer lights serves two purposes. It offers a consistent amount of lighting for safety, and it helps design the "ceiling,"or parameters, of the space.

Creating intimacy when lines of sight are less important...

Giant lamps allowed us to fill up this open event space and create almost a living room type of feeling.

We broke up the space in this large ballroom with the use of fabric dividers. On one side, there was a lounge setting; on the other, a buffet. Sheer fabric with textures work well because they don't create "hard" walls you can't see through. If location and budget allow, hang sheers from the ceiling for the best effect. But if that isn't possible, ground-supported sheers (as shown here) can be just as dramatic.

Now, the next time someone "gives you more space," you will know exactly what to do with it!

Egg-ceptional!

A funny little yolk ... "reverse" deviled eggs.

A Modern Twist on Easter Egg Hunts

As a boy, I hunted for Easter eggs the traditional way, searching for those colorful treasures hidden around the house and garden by my parents. Today, I went hunting for them the modern way -- on the internet! Specifically, on Pinterest.

The great thing about Pinterest is that it gives you design ideas all in one place without having to "scramble" (sorry!) all over the internet. Here are some treasures I found...

Fun and easy!

Using colored eggs as a surround for an internal vase is a great idea. Love that the base color of brown has been added; it grounds this arrangement.

Talk about putting all your eggs in one tree! Each year an apple tree in Saalfeld, Germany, is decorated with around 10,000 colored eggs by pensioner Volker Kraft. It's become a regional tourist attraction.

What are some of your favorite ways to decorate with eggs? Either leave comments here, or post your photos to our Facebook page!

Happy Easter!

Putting "Pin" to Paper

My Offline Inspiration Board

I am one of those people that you see on planes tearing pages from magazines and sticking them in a folder. I take them back to my office where I created a metal board on which I can "pin" (with magnets) these ideas. When I need ideas, you can find me pacing in front of that wall. I'd say that a good 30 percent of those pictures have become the basis of my design inspiration on one project or another. The one big problem that I've always had is that I can't easily add cool photos I find on the internet to this wall. Enter...


I recently discovered Pinterest and love it. It's a great way to save all the ideas and inspiration that you find on the internet in one space.

It's my new addiction!

And my online inspiration board!

You have to be invited or request an invitation. The latter sometimes takes a while. But if you request an invitation from me, either by e-mail or Twitter, I'll send one out to you. I just need your e-mail address. Once you are on it, I'm easy to find; just type David Merrell or link here: DavidMerrell.

FINDING INSPIRATION ON PINTEREST

I get a lot of my color inspiration from Mother Nature. No one can put together stunning colors like her! In fact, one of the my board is actually categorized as "environmental inspirations" and here are a couple of the photos I've "pinned" on it.

This is one of my favorite images and a crazy great color combo! I have it earmarked for a job I'm designing for the end of July. When the event is done, I'll post both again so you can see the inspiration and the result.

Another of my favorite pins, and once again, a very strong color combination.

PUTTING "PIN" TO "PAPER"

Here is a recent example of some more combinations I pinned and then used in a design.


The combination of pink, blue and teal where the inspiration for this event below.

The stage pieces on the right and left are from Dazian. (And if you are wondering about that middle light, the client's name was whited out for confidentiality reasons.)

Even the centerpieces have the whisper of that initial color inspiration.

See you on Pinterest! And please let me know what you think of it. I guarantee you will find inspiration there, and in turn, your pins will inspire others.