We were approached by an event agency to create several projects for their customer, Coca Cola, who was launching a new product during the Final Four basketball tournament here in Minneapolis. It was a great opportunity for us to work with a national brand and share our ideas for event space design, print production and sign installation challenges.
A pre-event party was being held in a conference room at the Hilton Hotel downtown, and they wanted to create a full “Coke experience” for the attendees. As guest entered the lobby, they were greeted by a large wall that looked like a giant hedge; we added a floating Coke logo by routing their artwork out of PVC and then painting it with their special Coke-red paint mix. Our team used small eye hooks on the back and attached it with fishing line.
Inside their hospitality room was some fine art that they didn’t want us to remove. So, we created custom-made “art covers” using photos and graphics supplied by the agency, printed on our large-format latex printer, and then mounted to black foam board. The corners were cut out and the edges folded over to create a ‘shoe-box’ like shape. We set the boxes on top of the framed pieces that were mounted to the walls. Overall, we made over 20 large and small versions as shown in the photo above.
We also created a custom wall graphic using a 30’ pop-up booth provided by WS Display, and a custom-built bar using a 2’x4’ frame with ACM (Aluminum Composite Material) on top. The bar was wrapped with a digital print, and then wedged in with shims to make it secure.
In additional to frosted vinyl on the glass windows and doors, the big focal point was another hedge wall inside the gathering space. This one we built ourselves using 2’x4’ construction with a plywood face, painted green. After adding a support structure in the back, we set sand bags on top to ensure it wouldn’t fall over, then attached artificial greenery and an illuminated Coke logo.
Everything was built in our sign shop first, tested, and then disassembled for shipping. Our installers had special access to the Hilton Hotel and limited time to unpack, assemble, set up and tweak the set up before the event on Thursday night. (The CEO was there herself to approve the space layout, and was thrilled with how things turned out.)
In addition to the Hilton party room, we also decorated a suite at US Bank Stadium with similar Coca Cola graphics for their executive team to enjoy the Final Four games in style. If you have a big event coming up (or even a small one), give KORT a call to talk about the variety of options, pricing, materials and creative ways to make it memorable! 763-432-7630 or [email protected]
