2021 MTV Video Music Awards
Brooklyn, NY
Design: YellowStudio
Art Direction: Matt Steinbrenner (Main Set) + Gloria Lamb (Performances)
Assistant Art Direction: Leticia Leon (Main Set + Performances); Jonathan Stoller-Schoff (Performances); Resa Jorgensen (Performances)
Key Art PA: Andie Rapavy
Lighting Design: Tom Sutherland / DX7 Design
Screens Producer: Trevor Burke / Visual Noise Creative
Creative Director: Paul Caslin
Executive Producers: Jesse Ignjatovic, Barb Bialkowski
Director: Joe Demaio
Inflatable Fabrication: Landmark Creations
Set Fabrication: Atomic
Staging: All Access
LED + Projection: Fuse
Rigging: Brian Lolly / Kish Rigging
Automation: TAIT
Coordinating Producer / Staging Supervisor: Gary Lanvy
EIC: Alicia Portugal
Over 1000 hours of sewing, 600 hours of design and 5000 individual fabric pieces went into making our 60’ tall inflatable MTV Moon Person.
2020 Democratic National Convention
Spanning from before Covid through August 2020, this project was filled with endless changes in order to adapt to the ever-changing world as Covid became part of our everyday lives.
Starting as a full scope arena design in Milwaukee and ending as a studio setup in Wilmington, DE this project kept us all on our toes for months on end.
In addition to the keynote stages for both the Vice President and President’s speeches during the DNC, we were tasked with featuring the diversity of our country from locations in all 57 delegations across the globe. We created weather resistant state markers that threaded the locations together for the DNC Roll Call. The markers were fabricated to adapt to the varying humidity and wind conditions in each location. Even our friends in Alaska got a marker, delivered to a small town only accessible by plane, by the United States Postal Service.
400 lights, one for every 1,000 Americans lost to Covid-19 at the time of Joe Biden’s Inauguration.
Washington, D.C.
Design: Bruce Rodgers / Tribe
I served as the Lead Art Director for the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards. We took over the historic Radio City Music Hall and transformed it into a truly VMA world.
Weighing 11k pounds, the large ‘halo’ was specially designed and engineered to be rigged from limited rigging locations at Radio City Music Hall, over the audience seating. The structure had to be strong enough to support itself while being light weight enough to be rigged in the historic venue.
The iconic Moon Man sculpture stood 27’ tall from foot to torch. It was custom designed to mimic the Statue of Liberty to celebrate the show’s return to NYC. The piece had to be completely self supporting, with no rigging from above. Temporary scaffolding was used to construct the statue, then removed for the show. The entire sculpture was lined with mappable LED tape.
The VMA stage was no ordinary stage. We pulled over 1200 seats in the venue to make way for our custom designed stage. The floor was embedded with infrared sensors beneath special black acrylic to facilitate augmented reality in the show.
Venue: The Dolby Theatre, Hollywood
Designer: Derek McLane
Art Directors: Matt Steinbrenner and Gloria Lamb
Storyboard Art: Matt Steinbrenner
Venue: The Forum, Los Angeles
Designer: Ric Lipson / StuFish
This set featured over 8,000 linear feet of LED tape edge lining the set. The 2017 VMAs is currently the heaviest show ever hung in the Forum's long and storied history. Head Rigger: Brian Lolly / Kish Rigging
Biden•Harris Election Night 2020
It was such an honor to work with these wonderful, passionate and dedicated professionals on something that was so meaningful and historic.
Wilmington, DE
Designer: Bruce Rodgers / Tribe
Venue: Microsoft Theater, Los Angeles
Designer: Tom Scutt
Venue: Dolby Theatre, Hollywood
Designer: Derek McLane
Art Directors: Matt Steinbrenner and Gloria Lamb
Storyboard Art: Matt Steinbrenner
Model Builder: Resa Jorgensen
Cabin set for Taylor Swift
Sunken Car for Billie Eilish
Exterior shoot with fabricated fast food restaurant for Lil Baby
Venue: Madison Square Garden, NYC
Designer: Tom Scutt
Venue: The Microsoft Theater, Los Angeles
Designer: Tamlyn Wright
Venue: MGM Grand Garden Arena
Designer: Brian Stonestreet
Assistant Art Director
Designer: Roy Christopher
Art Director: Joe Celli
Model Builder: Gloria Lamb
Sundance HQ - Sundance Channel Branded Environment
Designer: Anne Brahic
Cedar Rapids - "BrownStar Insurance Office" Themed Environment for Movie Premiere
Co-Design with Anne Brahic
Venue: The Forum, Los Angeles
Designers: Florian Weider and Tamlyn Wright
