White open spaces:
The winter-themed
upstairs lounge at
SummerLights ’04
For planners expecting to throw a good
old-fashioned theme party for their next event, a word of caution:
Themes aren’t what they used to be. With an increasingly shrewd and
seasoned crop of attendees to impress, the faux beach parties of
yore hold diminishing charm. The same goes for the luau, safari,
pirate party and other zany, prop-heavy hits planners might have
pulled off a few years ago.
“I think we’re moving past the point where people are looking
for the classic theme,” says Franny Andahazy, event designer for
Boston-based Party by Design. “You’re not walking into events
anymore and saying, ‘I get it, this is a ’50s party.’” Or, in the
harsher words of industry veteran Mary Micucci, president of Los
Angeles-based event design firm Along Came Mary, “The prefab theme
party is dead. Buh-bye.”
Today’s forward-thinking planners are trading in old standby
themes for new motifs and atmospheres that will truly surprise and
stimulate their attendees. And their methods of bringing older
themes to life have come a long way from plunking a netting-loaded
pirate ship onto the ballroom stage.
M&C interviewed planners and event designers for
sage advice about fashioning the next generation of “un-theme”
parties. Here’s how to invent them, how to execute them and how to
rein them in when called for.
Choosing the theme
Invent something new. Many planners are moving
away from familiar replications of a specific time or place and
hatching more abstract ideas. Next month, Los Angeles-based
Eventworks Inc. will theme one event around the sights, tastes and
sounds of tribal drumming. And don’t be afraid to design a theme
that is not immediately recognizable. Increasingly prevalent are
concepts that allow attendees time to piece the inspiration
together themselves, such as a recent affair, designed by the
Chicago-based Experiential Agency, that led guests through a series
of unnamed dreamscapes.
Theme around the client. “Knowing what the
client is about always comes first,” wisely notes Monica Antola,
senior account executive for Eventworks Inc. For a Novartis event
celebrating an orange cancer pill, Antola parlayed the color into
her theme, dousing centerpieces, linens and (some) food in the
signature shade. She held the event outdoors on the grass to
prevent orange overload.
Play off the locale. If the client requests a
more conventional destination-inspired theme, i.e., a Caribbean
party, the classic can be rejuvenated if the party is actually
being held in the celebrated region, at an appropriate venue.
San Francisco-based Woodberry Events offered up a 15th-century
Venetian masquerade ball for a client’s corporate incentive this
year, with one critical touch: The event was held in Venice. Set in
an antique ballroom at the Excelsior Hotel, the ball thrilled the
client and guests. (It didn’t hurt to have the costumier from the
movie Elizabeth design evening wear for all, to be left in their
hotel rooms the night before.) Says president Sarah Woodberry: “I
think a theme party that doesn’t connect to where it is or who it’s
for loses its bang.”
Transport them far away. Alternately, some
obvious tension between the theme destination and the actual
destination helps to freshen up the old schtick, à la the
delightfully wishful thinking of the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas:
The property recently put on a series of rainforest-accented
luncheons. In other words: Throw a beach party in Alaska. Throw one
in Florida, too, perhaps, but hold it on the actual beach. If in
St. Louis, abstain.
Be specific. With a regionally themed party,
specificity is always a good idea, advises Darren Andereck,
executive vice president and creative director for the Experiential
Agency as well as president and creative director for its
subsidiary decor supplier, Alice’s Garden. In other words, rather
than arranging a generic Mexican theme, consider pinpointing one
lesser-known spot within the destination a small town within
Mexico, such as Todos Santos, for example and grounding the event
in real local flavor rather than vague national references.
Mix it up. “The newest trend is to arrange for
different rooms with various atmospheres,” notes Paula Cardoso,
vice president of marketing for Tampa-based Grand Events of
Florida, LLC. The company’s “Evening of Extremes” event filled out
five separate areas of a large Ybor City venue with drastically
disparate moods, with colors ranging from deep and decadent reds to
pristine whites. The difference between the spaces and their
immediate proximity became a theme of its own for an event with
attendees from Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
THE BRANDED EXPERIENCE
Marc Friedland of
Creative Intelligence Inc.
Marc Friedland, founder and creative director for the L.A.-based design and branding firm Creative Intelligence Inc., is one of several event professionals who bristle at the words “theme party.” “We’re really seeing a move away from theme events toward what we call branded experiences,” he says.
For Friedland, the difference means more than stigma avoidance. “Planners and designers have to consider the larger purpose of theming an event,” he notes. “For strong ROI, you need to focus on creating a unified experience, where the experience of the event is the experience of the brand, and the attendee can really internalize that brand identity.”
In a recent collaboration with L.A.-based event design firm Along Came Mary on a farewell event for television’s Frasier, the show was treated to a full-blown exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Television Arts, a nonexistent venue created just for the evening. From the credibly stuffy MOCTA logo on the invites to the docent at the door, “we made it feel like a bona fide museum,” Friedland says. “The attendee was transported for the night, in a way that reflected back on the client, which should be the goal of any event.” -- M.D.R.
Decorating the idea
Lose the obvious props. “It’s not about putting out
sombreros to mean Mexico anymore, or setting out a cardboard Eiffel
Tower on the buffet and saying ‘Doesn’t this cheese taste great?’”
notes Cindy Kelly Spilman, director of group catering for
Washington, D.C.’s Grand Hyatt Washington. Props still can be
useful: surreal, unexpected touches like the sit-in igloo at
SummerLights ’04, a venue showcase for New York City’s Metropolitan
Pavilion, work well. Large, flat imitation props, however, are
fading fast.
Create atmosphere. Savvy planners are relying
on lighting and fabrics to paint broader, more resonant strokes,
conjuring the mood of a destination rather than re-creating its
miniature. When Andereck recently was charged with designing a
Moroccan theme, he chose to forego literal-minded decor and instead
opted for eclectic, brightly colored fabrics hung low from the
ceiling, and a floor covered with sand, all taking inspiration from
a Moroccan catacomb. “We took Morocco and presented our own
abstract interpretation of it,” Andereck says of the fresh but
faithful take, “and it worked.”
Let there be light. “Lighting is the single
most important element when designing a modern event,” declares
Mary Micucci. Indeed, in the grand pursuit of atmosphere, few tools
at the planner’s disposal are as valuable, versatile and affordable
as lighting.
Donna Berg, president of New York City’s Donna B. Productions,
carved out four discrete spaces and one clearly defined entry
tunnel at the SummerLights ’04 event through the use of lighting
alone, theming the affair around the various moods of a four-color
palette (purple, blue, orange and red) to chic and compelling
effect. Linens, buffet presentations and furniture were on hand to
enhance the color commitment of each area, but simple fluorescent
light anchored it all.
Other recent successes with lighting include a tastefully
executed Mexico event at California’s Hyatt Regency Long Beach. The
lighting scheme was heavy with reds, ambers and oranges and was
complemented by similarly hued table settings.
Project! Also on hand to flesh out the mood at
SummerLights ’04 were large-scale video projections, another
atmospheric tool replacing the props of yesteryear. “We threw film
[of New York City streets] onto the back wall to bring it to life
in a way that simply decorating it wouldn’t have done,” says Berg.
Upstairs, on the surreal, sensuous and eerily white “winter palace”
floor, a wall projection of waddling penguins added depth and
animation to the nearby dessert stand.
Avoid clutter. The telltale sign of a dated
theme party is a space glutted with decor. The reprioritization of
light over props is echoed by a deliberate paring-down in the
furniture department as well. Chairs and couches are cropping up in
fewer, more intimate clusters, leaving more open space for lighting
and atmosphere.
A vision in blue:
Visions Display’s
tastefully themed
“Club Ice” event
Catering the theme
Keep tabletops relevant, but reasonable. Thematic tabletop gestures
can be small or elaborate, but planners in the know recommend that
the table make some nods of deference toward the theme without
losing its own dignity. Eventworks graced each table at the opening
party for the Los Angeles Opera’s fiery Damnation of Faust with a
ring of red-dyed sunflowers and dark orange linens, maintaining a
table setting that remained theme-specific but still sensible out
of context.
Buffet tables: Theme away. Buffet tables allow
for more theme work, since they provide an oft-visited anchor for
the evening’s decor without monopolizing the attendee’s frame of
vision.
At Party by Design’s recent element-themed affair, earth, wind
and fire each got its fare share of attention with a buffet area of
its own. Decor for the water table, including transparent bubbling
tubes that wrapped around the base and up the edges, framed a
seafood-heavy list of offerings, while the earth table bloomed with
mushrooms, mosses and sunflowers and offered salads and sautés. The
air table, lit from within, was dressed in sheer linens and candles
and served cream puffs for dessert.
Consider simplicity. When New York City-based
makeup giant Mac Cosmetics launched its new product line this year,
the company emphasized the line’s natural, organic attributes with
a distinctly earthy sunlit luncheon, anchored by an artfully simple
buffet, courtesy of Montclair, N.J.-based Tim McLaughlin, executive
chef and vice president of culinary for Restaurant Associates’
Central Catering Kitchen.
An elegantly spare salad bar packed with more than 70 offerings
was laid out on naked sawhorse tables, workshop-style, and
interspersed with an atmospheric array of rocks and candle
settings. For the universe of attendees inured to increasingly
dizzying event designs, the understated approach proved
electrifying.
Play gently with food. When Jo-Ann Craigie,
founder and CEO of Toronto-based Visions Display, dreamed up her
“Club Ice” event, a particularly elaborate and micro-coordinated
universe of chilled blues and whites, she and her team wrote up a
menu that matched the theme in texture or color at nearly every
turn, from the faintly blue cream of roast eggplant soup to the
white chocolate mousse dome with blueberries at evening’s end. Even
Craigie, however, knew not to burden her entrée with too many theme
concerns.
The novelty of such feats will wear off for the attendee long
before the memory of a fine meal. If the devised themed menu is
less delectable than a standard one, keep one or two side elements
and table the rest.
Consider practical concerns. Taste buds aren’t
the only thing that can suffer from an overly themed menu.
Craigie’s initial plans for a blueberry sorbet between courses were
quickly scrapped once she envisioned a roomful of attendees with
darkly dyed lips and tongues.
Design a signature drink. If pressed for ideas,
the creation of an event-specific, color-coordinated cocktail
provides just enough tip of the hat to weave all the design
elements together without too much culinary compromise. At the
recent launch of an Elizabeth Arden lipstick line, New York
City-based Thomas Preti Caterers invented drinks to match each new
color in the collection.
Dye is dead. One universally agreed-upon don’t
for would-be themers: If color plays a major part in the motif,
serve dishes that match naturally. Alternatively, offer fare that
shares more elusive associations with the shade, as in the spicy
offerings of SummerLights’ red section, the blue space’s ice
bar-grounded shellfish or the purple area’s comfort foods. Do not
dye foods conspicuously, however. “We weren’t about to serve blue
pasta,” Berg scoffs. Consider this gospel.
Managing the theme
Know when to tone it down. Liz Sanzo, vice president of programs
for the International Special Events Society in Chicago, organized
a fairly incendiary party for this year’s ISES awards when she
themed the event as a grand descent into hell. The affair was set
in the deeply red New York City nightclub Pressure, teeming with
over-the-top additions such as scantily clad “whip artists” just
missing their moving targets (yes, attendees).
Perhaps most notable, however, was Sanzo’s seamless transition
between the fire-drenched milling space to the more earthly (and
formal) dinner area. To tone the high party level down a few
notches without losing the evening’s continuity, Sanzo dressed her
tables in a dramatic but dignified red linen and tucked a few red
chili peppers into the black table napkins.
“You have to be careful not to make your theme so dominant that
you lose sight of what the whole event is about,” Sanzo counsels,
teaching planners what might be the most important lesson of the
new un-theme enlightenment. “The challenge with arranging something
like that was making sure you were still in the theme, that you
felt it, you were drinking it, eating it, sitting in it, but you
still remembered why you were there.”