The stage is more than just a physical space—it's often the focal point of the entire event, not to mention the area most likely to show up in professional and guest photographs. Getting the stage design right means you can keep your audience hooked, make your content pop, and seriously up the vibe of your event.
Here at Sequence, we combine creativity with technical expertise to design stages that are not just functional, but also memorable spaces that fit into an event’s overall visual identity. Here’s our playbook for creating stage designs that make a major impact.
- Start with strategy.
Every successful stage design—like every other aspect of event production!—begins with a clear strategy. It's essential to align the design with the event’s overarching goals and themes, ensuring the stage reinforces the event narrative goals and engages the audience from start to finish.
- Conduct a thorough venue audit.
Understanding the venue inside and out is critical. Before we design anything, we meticulously assess every aspect of the space, including its existing infrastructure, technical capabilities, and any limitations. This deep dive helps us tailor our designs perfectly to the venue, making sure everything from sound to visuals is spot-on.
- Collaborate across departments.
The best stage designs result from a collaborative effort across multiple disciplines. At SEQ, we pull in our pros from production, creative, and technical to craft every stage we create; this cross-departmental collaboration ensures that every component of the stage design works together to create a seamless experience.
- Ensure consistent branding.
Branding is at the heart of stage design. We make sure every visual element, from the backdrop to the screen content to the colors and materials, reflects the brand’s identity. This helps forge a strong visual link between your audience and your company, turning the stage into a powerful branding tool.
- Integrate logos thoughtfully.
Stages are also a great place to reinforce an event’s logo or name—after all, those pics are going to be everywhere! But at the same time, no one wants their speaker presentations drowned out by overbearing or overly promotional backdrops. Thoughtful logo integrations can be visually appealing and also functional.
- Be strategic with lighting.
Lighting plays a pivotal role in setting the mood and focusing attention. Our lighting designs are not just about illumination but about creating an atmosphere. We use a mix of lighting styles, including dynamic layered lighting, to spotlight key moments and make sure everyone on stage shines—literally.
- Enhance visibility with LED screens.
To ensure every seat in the house has a good view, we like to place LED screens strategically around the stage. This allows us to project close-ups of speakers and presentations, thus making the content more accessible to all attendees.
- Consider audience-centric seating arrangements.
An extension of stage design is, of course, seating design. More and more, event hosts are going beyond the traditional theater-style seating (though that will never go out of style!) and instead bringing in things like tables or a mix of comfortable furniture. It’s all about tailoring it to the specific event and the audience’s comfort levels—and ensuring everyone has a great view of the stage, of course.
- Ensure cohesion across any breakout stages.
Consistency across all event stages is key, especially for large conferences with multiple stages and breakout sessions. We design each breakout stage to reflect the main stage's aesthetics, but adapt the scale and technical requirements to fit smaller or differently purposed spaces.
- Partner with local vendors.
Our commitment to sustainability is reflected in our choice of partners. When possible, we strive to work with local vendors and prioritize collaborations with businesses owned by historically marginalized communities. This approach not only supports local economies, but also adds unique local flair to our stage designs. It can also help keep prices in check for our clients—and allow more items to be recycled and repurposed. (Fun fact: At a recent SEQ-produced event, the venue actually bought our scenic to repaint and reuse for future events!)
Looking for a partner to help design and produce your upcoming conference? Let’s connect.