Had the wonderful opportunity to design the 2021 NFL Kickoff concert stage with the Joe Lewis Company last month. After years of doing various projects for the NFL, they let us move up the ranks a little and do a higher profile job. It was a great chance to really show what we could do.
It was a fascinating process. When I was with Viacom/MTV Networks I designed a lot of concerts. But, of course, that was for a client that dealt heavily with music programming. The NFL approaches things very differently, and it was a learning experience for me. Fortunately I love learning! So it wasn't painful. Just very different and interesting. I'd love the chance to do another project like this with them, because I feel like we moved through that learning curve pretty quickly. So we'll see next year.
I'm going to let the photos speak for themselves. . . especially since it's Friday afternoon. You'll see that Ed Sheeran was the headliner. And he's quite a performer. You can check out some video on YouTube of the show (I'm not sure I can link it from here, but I'll try). Things turned out nicely, despite the frequent Tampa rain showers.
Thanks for reading!
. . . . Sorry! It's a week later and I realized that I never uploaded a sketch of the design. I like to always have a sketch to go with the actual photos, so that people can see how we got from point A to point B. (Or point A to point Z, in some cases.) So here's a sketch! I did a truckload of them for this one. They aren't the most developed 3d renderings, because we were working with quick turnarounds. So I skimped on some lighting and materials to save time and computer processing. I think they still got the point across, sold the design, and moved us forward with the production. This particular sketch shows when the screens lowered at the end of the concert, to be used for the Watch Party that ensued. (And revealed all of the Bud Light branding, of course.)
