Aurora Creative

03/10/2023

One of my favorite things is when life's little ironies show up unexpectedly. Where I live right now, it is VERY windy outside, with gusts well over 20 MPH. Exactly one year ago today, We were loading in the 100th Anniversary Party for the Gaudin Motor Company into two very large tents. That day ALSO saw the most record-breaking winds Las Vegas had ever encountered, making us slightly concerned that our tents and everything inside them would be destroyed. We made it through those challenges (and many others) and ended up producing a REALLY cool event.

We provided all of the audio, lighting, and LED/video for the entire event, which spanned 3 days of installation, 2 days of the show, and 2 days of strike.

02/23/2023

One month ago today, we wrapped up a show that I've been designing since 2020. The pandemic set us back, and we finally got to execute this show this year, which was incredible.

We had General Sessions, an Awards Banquet, an 80s-themed party night with a live band, and a Nscar pit crew demonstration with an actual Nascar in the middle of the room. Designing a production that could effectively handle all of those elements without much time for turnover was challenging, but I think we executed the design perfectly. Utilizing about 1000 tiles of LED (including Seamless 90º corners), low-resolution video mapping on light tubes, and about 120 total lighting fixtures, we were able to develop a design that worked for every single use. It was a large scale, but not overdone. I'm super happy with the final result. Shout out to Christina Hoff at 12Twelve for creating all the custom aspect video content we used on the screens.

(The first gallery picture is the rendering I did to help pitch the concept. The second photo is the actual product. It's always super satisfying seeing the real-life thing- especially after pouring over the design for 3 whole years.)

01/01/2023

2020 and 2021 taught us what it meant to rest. 2022 taught us what it meant to be completely overwhelmed. Let's say we find the balance in 2023, yes?

12/29/2022

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adamogden_lightingdesign-eventdesign-activity-7011856910186426368-FPuh?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

11/16/2022

As this year starts to wind to a close, I keep realizing that there are so many cool events happening in my world that I'm not sharing here. So, I thought I would take a second a share a few photos of a worthy cause that I got to be a part of about a month ago.

Grant a Gift Autism Foundation is a large non-profit organization doing a TON of great work here in the Las Vegas area. Every year, they hold their annual fundraising gala, where they host various auctions, entertainment, etc. Of the 12 years this event has happened, I've probably been involved in about half of them.

This year, we hosted it at Allegiant Stadium for just under 900 attendees. I was able to wear several hats for this show, including Technical Director, Production Designer, Lighting Designer, and Show Director, among others. It was a great show, and we helped raise over $2 Million that evening.

From a technical perspective, InSync provided all of the gear, including LED walls, video backend, cameras/jibs (with the help of our friends at Abletek), lighting, audio, staging, and scenic. We worked with our rigging partners to put everything on self-climbing towers and arches to make the load-in as smooth as possible. The venue was great to work with (as always), and the Grant a Gift team put together a great evening.

It's nice to get out of the hotel ballrooms and do something a bit different for a change, especially when you're also helping out an organization that is doing so much good for people in need.

10/02/2022

A couple of weeks ago, I designed a corporate General Session at a Resort in Southern California. This week, we were charged with turning an old, unused residential horse arena into a Charity Gala space in just 1 day. Many hours later, and with literally billions of grains of sand/dirt in my shoes... we pulled it off, and the gala was a success.

It's important to look at every venue, every client, and every event as a brand new opportunity. Listen to what the client needs and what they're trying to accomplish. In production, there are no cookie-cutter solutions. Each time you roll into a venue, it's a chance to create something that's the best-quality thing anyone has ever seen in that venue. It's not about price. Or size. It's about creating a high-quality, technically-transparent event that caters exactly to the needs of the client. Sometimes that'll be in a ballroom- and sometimes it'll be in an arena... even if it's a horse arena.

Thanks to BESTAgency for having us out on this one.

09/26/2022

Last week, I got to spend the week in Carlsbad, California, working for a long-time client with one of my favorite crews of people. I had the opportunity to provide the Production Design for this one, including the scenic/lighting design, as well as the integration of the other production elements into the overall design. LED walls, projection mapping, and custom gobos were used in concert with Christina Hoff's custom video content to really create a sleek, unified design. Sean Lee, our onsite LD, also did an outstanding job bringing the vision to reality.

Thanks to Jeff Risalvato and Daniel Dunlop for having me out this year; it was a ton of fun to see it all come together and the positive reception it earned!

05/17/2022

One of my most favorite parts of my job is developing a production design on paper, and then seeing it come to life later on. This is one of those designs. Being able to change up the format for this client a little bit was a lot of fun, and they really seemed to enjoy it.

Thanks again to JR Technical Services LLC for letting my creative juices flow last week. It also didn't hurt having a killer onsite crew, who all knocked it out of the park, as usual.

(Some content blurred for privacy)

10/29/2021

10/28/2021

10/27/2021

A little show that I got to act as LD on in Orlando.

6x Satura Profiles
6x ZW37's
12x Color Chorus 72"
16x Fuze Par Z120
18x Ovation E-260 CW Lekos
Grandma2 Console

03/17/2021

Here is an article that I was able to write for Exhibit City News magazine.

https://exhibitcitynews.com/shop-to-showfloor-why-led-banners-make-sense/

In 2019, the U.S. tradeshow industry was a $5.5 billion industry that showcased an incredible amount of B2B growth, product unveilings and innovation across several different market segments. And before the global lockdowns, booth designs were becoming more elaborate, and technology became more cent...