DaVinci Fusion provided full design, lighting, sound and video projection for the San Francisco Exploratorium’s 28th annual awards dinner.
In its design, DaVinci Fusion paid homage to the museum’s historic heritage–the museum is located in the Palace of Fine Arts, originally built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. More than 1,000 attended the gala at which Dr. Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel Corp., was honored with the Exploratorium’s Director’s Award.
The yearly awards gala raises funds to develop and maintain its teacher-training program in the greater Bay Area as well as in 600 school districts in 38 states, and to maintain community-outreach programs and the museum’s Web site.
"It was our goal to celebrate the space and build a bridge between the building’s fine-arts heritage and craftsmanship and the hands-on science museum that is the Exploratorium," says DaVinci Fusion president Solomon Rosenzweig, who served as designer and technical producer for the event. "Our design was a marriage of the old and the new, which showcased the beauty of the almost one hundred-year old space, while accenting the high-tech edge of science and technology. Making that kind of connection is what DaVinci Fusion is known for."
For the gala dinner, held in the Exploratorium’s large exhibition and cafeteria area, DaVinci Fusion took a design cue from the invitation, which featured a blow up of a rainbow-hued silicon chip in honor of Intel’s Dr. Barrett. Inspired by the luminescent and reflective properties of the chip, DaVinci Fusion hung 20’x4’ holographic vinyl panels around the perimeter of three sides of the room. Suspended from a contemporary silver aluminum truss with cobalt-blue lighting, the panels were lit with cracked, multi-color, rotating Apollo Design gobos.
"The holographic vinyl created high-impact visual columns, which accented the grandeur of the space," Rosenzweig points out. "They gave the room an almost cathedral-like feel with their tall, vertical lines."
DaVinci Fusion used holographic vinyl to cover the glass on the impressive 25’set of doors that led into the space and formed the backdrop for the stage, which hosted speakers and award winners. "Lighting from the stage played off the doors, picking up the holographic material like glistening silicon chips," says Rosenzweig.
A pair of 20’ angels from the Palace of Fine Arts bracketed the doors. "The angels were a great reminder of the building’s Panama-Pacific Expo heritage," Rosenzweig notes. "Instead of using typical curtain treatments for the stage, the original doors and angels made a very dramatic backdrop at the center of the room."
DaVinci Fusion also installed two 15’x20’ screens, which flanked the angels. The screens displayed IMAG of the speakers, a video bio of Dr. Barrett, and clips of the museum’s programs, which benefited from the successful fundraiser.