In the summer of 2007 I began work on the stage design for the 2007-2008 PlanetWisdom Tour. The PlanetWisdom Tour is a conference event for junior high and high schoolers that travels nationally to 13 cities. I thought I’d post the process of the stage design from sketch to reality. First came the sketch:

This sketch is based on the standard size of our stages. It shows overlapping swags of fabric with a projection screen off to the right. Next came coloring this sketch in Photoshop:

This process of coloring my sketch is important because it usually helps in selling the concept to the rest of the PlanetWisdom staff. It’s also helpful in showing the desired outcome so the lighting director can help make it come alive.

Once the sketch was colored, I had to make a final decision on what colors the swags would be, and how those colors would play off the lighting that would be added later. I decided to go with three colors, dark gray, silver and a fuchsia. After calculating how many swags I would need to hang from the top lighting truss, I then placed the order for the swags to be custom made by Rose Brand. I’ve been working with Rose Brand for the past three years and it’s always a great experience. After the pieces arrive, myself and the great crew from B&L Sound & Lighting put up the pieces to make sure we received everything correctly.

Everything looks good, but it’s still not quite right until we light it up. With the help of lighting director Camron Ware from Visual Worshiper, the stage comes alive and the vision becomes reality.

Thanks to the help of Rose Brand, B&L Sounds and Lighting and Camron Ware, we were able to take a pencil sketch and make it live!