Foreo: The Craziest CES Booth Ever? Part Three

One might ask what a Swedish beauty care company is doing at CES—Consumer Electronics Show—where one expects the gadgets of the future, but boy did Foreo raise eyebrows with the theatricality of their show, from the sound of chainsaws to gas fumes, and vials of pink liquid offered by scientists in white lab coats for visitors brave enough to imbibe. The booth caused quite the uproar with long lines to be part of The Foreo Experience in Las Vegas, January 7-12, 2018.

Designed by a team of theatrical designers, with scenery by John Iacovelli, lighting by Brian Gale, and sound by Cricket Myers, the booth was built by Sin City Scenic. Intended to be a research facility, with armed guards at the perimeter, guests were blindfolded, while some were wrapped in yellow sheets and plastic wrap. Quite a production to sell a 20-minute “smart” facial mask at a show that features next-generation innovations for consumers, from laptops to televisions: But there is no doubt that Foreo made their mark!

Live Design reached out to the creators and builders of the Foreo booth, to get their take on the project. Hear from Sin City Scenic and scenic designer John Iacovelli.

 

Lighting Designer Brian Gale

John Iacovelli called me a little before Christmas with a crazy CES booth project. The next day we had a meeting with the creative director/writer/friend of John’s, Goran Gajic, at his house at the base of the Hollywood sign. He had a script and a plan for a wild experience and away we went.

Goran explained that his friend at Foreo wanted to shake things up. They wanted an experience like nothing else at CES, the thought being that playing the insurgent at CES is a better path than going toe-to-toe with the Googles, Apples, and tech world giants. 

Given the compressed timeframe coupled with the fact that seemingly every one of my go-to lighting shops in Vegas was already maxed out on CES, we wound up going to one of my favorite LA shops, Volt Lites. Harrison Lipman and Matt Shimamoto at Volt had the right selection of lighting gear, effects, and bandwidth for our fast turnaround.

Next, I scrambled around to find a Vegas programmer with a couple of days available at short notice. Thankfully, Benny Kirkham was spending some rare time at home and could jump in with a couple of days notice. 

 We all arrived at CES on the 4th of January, and with the fantastic support of our super ME Martin Woytas and the excellent last minute scene shop Sin City, we succeeded in delivering The Foreo “WTF” Experience.

Click here to enlarge light plot to PDF.

Lighting & FX Gear from Volt Lites, Los Angeles

  • GLP Force 120 LED 48" Fan
  • 3 Hurricane E DMX Fan
  • MDG Hazer
  • Ckaypaky Mythos
  • ETC Source Four LED Lustr @ 36º
  • 10 Claypaky Sharpy
  • 11 GLP X4 Bar 20 LED Strip
  • 4 GLP X4 Bar 10 LED Strip

Stay tuned for more on the sound design!