Backdrops and screens provide effective event decor

A pirate scene comes to life thanks to Backdrops Fantastic.

The best backdrops and screens stand out while luring event guests in. Whether you use them to encircle, divide, connect or conceal is entirely up to you.

GET PAINT

Nothing sets a room scene like a themed backdrop. And no qualities make for a more desirable backdrop than versatility and visionary design.

San Diego-based DreamWorld Backdrops, which stocks more than 1,500 backdrops in its expansive inventory, is helping designers deliver whole-environment themes with two brand-new motifs. Both the playfully abstract “Music” design and watercolor-like “European Street Scene” are hand-painted and airbrushed on durable polyester-cotton fabric. “Our product is lightweight, easy to install and to ship, and the paint does not crack,” notes the company's Beverly Pamensky-Murray.

Macon, Ga.-based Backdrops Fantastic, which also provides hand-painted products, takes backdrop versatility to the next level with its themed Roomsets. Company president Clayton Hellis describes Roomsets as multiple backdrops in a similar theme that can be merged “into one continuous design to cover an entire room.” Backdrops Fantastic's Roomsets can be installed using a standard pipe and base setup to give more than 400 linear feet of coverage.

PROJECT YOURSELF

Backdrops that provide projection surfaces and media interactivity are yet another way to enhance an event's theme scheme.

Hollywood, Calif.'s Grosh Scenic Rentals gets into the act with its popular “Drive-In Movie Theater” backdrop screen. A natural fit for the company's clients — many of them based in the entertainment capital — the customizable backdrop features an image of three classic cars and a large white screen. “An event planner has the ability to incorporate a projected image or logo onto the screen,” notes company vice president Amanda Lindoerfer.

To aid planners' efforts even further, Grosh recently launched an online storefront where clients “can easily submit event dates, check availability, receive an accurate rental quote including round trip shipping costs and applicable taxes, and reserve an item for their next event,” Lindoerfer adds. “It's that easy!”

Meanwhile, Secaucus, N.J.-based Rose Brand is focusing on stretch shapes that “permit the viewer to coexist with the image and shape and see content within the shape,” says the company's Deborah Sperry. Also a hit with clients are such high-tech offerings as scrims sprayed with trademarked Screen Goo, which creates an instant image surface, and interactive backdrops where content can be authored in real time on Soft-LED backdrops.

ELEMENTS OF STYLE

In the case of Westlake Village, Calif.-based Holo-Walls, metal is the medium of choice — or at least it appears to be. That's because the company's Holo-Drape product uses holographic-metallic films — laminated onto 10-ounce, flame-retardant black vinyl — to create “‘clones’ of real metal without the cost, weight and heavy fabrication” of metal, says company president Kevin McCarthy.

At Miami's Prina, the aluminum Water Screen is a winner with clients looking for installation flexibility and maximum visual impact. Its three-person, one-hour setup requires a simple water hose and no truss or stand, according to company director Adolfo Prina.

Then there's the brand-new AquaSermo, distributed exclusively by Anaheim, Calif.-based Carving Ice, according to company marketing manager Evelyn Hicks. Introduced in June at the event marking soccer star David Beckham's arrival with the Los Angeles Galaxy team, the AquaSermo generates “millions of tiny illuminated droplets [that] cascade to the ground forming an image in midair — a name, a logo, a message, even a picture,” Hicks says.

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