For Simon Evans, Senior Director of Creative AV-TAO Group and cofounder of Visual Artform, it started in a club. During his LDI 2025 talk, The Art of VJ'ing, the DJ, VJ, production technology specialist and designer will show the audience an image of legendary UK club, The Haçienda, in his hometown of Manchester, back in 1982. It shows a fairly rudimentary lighting rig and a projection screen hanging from the ceiling. The concept of visuals to enhance the sensory experience of music was an inspiration for him. He says, "I had the option to look at sweaty people around me in the dark, or I could look at art! Art tells a story, and when you put music and video together to tell that story it is a very powerful thing."
Since then, his career has been focused on creating the atmosphere and emotion that brings people together, through music and images as a music producer with chart topping hits for LMC and Trick Babies, and as a DJ who pitched MTV on mashing up music and video to create the weekly MTV Mash show. "I used to wind up my mum telling her I got more viewers than Coronation Street," he says, and at 16 million viewers it didn't just compete with the popular British soap opera, it marked the point where music and video became inextricably linked, whether recorded or live and on the fly.
Since then, Evans has worked as a VJ on some of the biggest tours and events, from the Black Eyed Peas to Fisher, TVs shows like Jimmy Fallon, Ellen Degeneres and Good Morning America to the Nobel Peace Prize Awards and 28 shows at Coachella. Working on EDC in Las Vegas brought him to Tao Group Hospitality where he and his company run production for its 80+ venues, including Marquee Singapore, Ling Ling Dubai, Marquee New York and Omnia and Hakkasan Las Vegas. He's now contributing to the design of new venues, including the Palm Tree Beach Club at MGM Grand and the brand new Omnia Day Club which will open at Caesars in early 2026.
Evans sat down for a chat with Live Design at LDI 2025, where he is a speaker for Backstage Las Vegas, Battle of the Busk (three days) and The Art of VJ'ing.
Live Design: The Inaugural VJ Challenge is presented by your company, Visual Artform. What prompted you to get involved?
Simon Evans: We wanted to extend an invitation to the VJ community to come to LDI and shine a spotlight on this part of the industry. Visual artists are so important to the live show industry, we interpret the vision of the artists, and get to tell the story of the shows on the biggest stages in the world. And the VJ Challenge is serious about the art form, there is a $2,000 cash prize and a chance to VJ at a festival or one of the Las Vegas venues for the winner.
Someone told me they saw my talk last year at LDI and it inspired them to come into the industry. At the career day in 2024 I met two young students from Texas who we signed up for internships, and this year they ran production for a tour at Omnia. We always like to champion LDI for everything it brings to the industry and the access it gives for people starting out.
LD: Mentoring and seems to be a passion for you.
SE: Yes! We mentored and trained Tara Molson when she was starting out and now she tours the world with Grammy-winner Chris Lake, taking stops at legendary venues like Red Rocks Amphitheater and Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco. She started her career with us and now she is a judge on the VJ Challenge. But mentoring goes both ways. I do bring people on board with little experience if they are dedicated, but a current member of our team approached me early on in his career and I told him he was not ready, he needed more discipline. He went to work at AREA 15 for a year and then came back and that time we did hire him.
LD: What tools do you use?
SE: I rely on Madmapper and Resolume, and we create visuals using Cinema 4D, Adobe After Effects, and Notch. On the video side, we use stage controllers AKAI APC40, Elgato Streamdeck and a Traktor F1, with live camera effects from Panasonic and Marshall Electronics' touring cameras.
LD: Why did you form a company rather than staying freelance or working in house?
SE: Actually, my wife Lee Anne Evans, owns the company. I met her in Vancouver when I was working at the Winter Olympics and in the early days she would tour with me and do social media. But she has a business degree from Victoria University, British Columbia, and her job made working around my schedule difficult. It made sense for her to use the business degree and jump on board with me, handling the contracts, recruitment, and making sure we got paid. Honestly, the company would fail without her. It isn't just that I haven't seen an invoice in over a decade and that gives me the freedom to create and design, although I cannot overstate how important that is. It is also being part of a family-run business where trust and values are everything, and that has an impact on how you think about every project and approach every challenge and solution. Because of that we have built the company, Visual Artform, designing stages and shows for artists including Kygo, the first artist to get a billion streams on Spotify, the Black Eyed Peas, Florence and The Machine, and the rapper Nelly.
Last year, she was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer but through all the treatments and chemo she still managed to stay on top of all the finances to ensure everything was in order, including approving all accounting directives. In some ways it gave her purpose, but she also encouraged me to work, because we think the team and this community are important. We are very, very lucky that she is recovering and doing well. Through it all Tao Group was extraordinarily supportive and we need to see more of that in the industry. I was able to travel between Vancouver during the week for her chemo and oncology appointments, and Las Vegas for Tao projects on Fridays and Saturdays.
LD: What advice would you give people starting out in the business?
SE: In terms of technology, everyone can download the demo version of most software and play around with it to start learning.
Next, go to LDI for the intermediate and then advanced versions of those skills. While you are there, network! The Backstage tour is useful to learn the real world expectations, it is important to see front of house where the production is being run. If they are passionate about the industry, look for internships. We do something called Shadow Shifts – our operator runs the show but the interns can be on coms and experience how to call a show and watch how everything works.
It is very important to find the right company, as I found out last year. We come across a lot of people, especially in Las Vegas, who don’’t get the support they need in the industry. We make a point of have a meeting once a month where the team talks about everything that is going on, what we need for each show, what can be improved, everyone has input because in all these venues we run everything – not just one part, and the process works better when everyone is informed and contributing to every aspect. We do over 2000+ events per year, so a positive team culture is key for us to produce the volume of shows at the highest level.
I’m finding that in today's world you need to be a Swiss army knife, adaptable enough to deal with every situation, in any career. I have worked with Kygo since he was a very young touring artist and didn’t have a tour manager. He is not just a musician, he is the first artist to have a venue partnership in in Las Vegas (Palm Tree Beach Club with MGM and Tao Group), after working with him for 11 years in a row, it’s amazing to see him still breaking barriers in his career.
I tell my lighting people learn video, I tell my video people learn lasers. You don't have to be an expert on everything but you need a basic understanding of how everything works together and not be afraid to recognize that if there is "a" problem, it is "your" problem and jump in.
Last week, at the Formula 1 event in Omnia we had situation. In this industry, expect situations. Without going into detail I ended up having to DJ, which i haven't done for seven years, in the main room in front of 3000 people. It was one of those occasions where you have to pull it out of the bag under pressure. But if you love everything about the industry you can do that. I still buy vinyl so music is my passion! You never know when you will have to jump in and save the day because someone sprayed champagne on the mixer and the audio guy froze wondering how to handle with the headline artist. (Yes, that happened.) You can teach people software, but you need more than that to jump in to save the show, a basic understanding of how everything works together. It helps to have humor as well. One time at the Seattle Seahawks stadium in front of 40,000 people we had another "situation" that interrupted the show. Until we could get the audio back up and running, I took an animation from the internet of an old-fashioned system rebooting with the bar slowly moving and ran it on the video screens, and then the crowd started cheering. This little throwback moment carried the audience with us and made what could have been a disaster into it's own little event with the promoter thinking it was part of the ‘show’!
Lastly, I would say to people joining the industry that wellness is important, take care of yourself, and there are four qualities that will give you a R.I.C.H. life and take you far:
R for respect
I for integrity
C for communication and
H for honestly.