Is It Worth Stepping Up a Stage Design Tier?

Don't they say you judge a person by the first seven seconds? You walk in the room, you're now judging the organization, the company, the experience in the first seven seconds. What's the first thing that happens when you walk in the room? You're going to look at the stage. You're going to have that forever. 

So What Are the Tiers, Exactly? 

Generally tier zero is uplights on drape. Very, very boring. And that's often where people start. 

From there, we have an inventory of set design pieces and we have the ability to fabricate new pieces, so we start showing clients some options - and what we can do for sometimes very nominally more. Tier one and two is built from that inventory: additional motion lights, a mix of stock pieces and custom fabrication, depending on the theme and what's being asked for. 

Tier three is the full build - LED, projection, and the most customized fabrication we offer. This is the tier where the budget conversation tends to come up most directly, since it's the one most often pointed to when a client is looking for somewhere to cut back. 

When we talk about design tiers, it comes down to dollars - how much we're able to add, whether that's LED, projection, additional motion lights, custom fabrication or stock pieces, and the client vision for the show. 

How Do You Know Which Tier Is Right for You? 

It starts before the budget conversation, with the theme. We want to know what their theme is, and occasionally we come up with a theme, but normally the client already has a vision. With a theme we build out the visuals - brand design, some marketing materials, whether it's printed or online to promote an event. And then we're expanding on that to the motion graphics that we're going to show on the screens at the show, and then the set design. 

How we make the set design relevant to a theme is always a big part, and we're customizing it every time. So the right tier isn't a number picked in isolation. It's how far that theme gets carried, given the budget available to carry it.

What If the Budget Gets Tight?

Budgets are tight. And sometimes the clients look at the gear, the team and ask - where else can we cut back? And I say, "The one thing that's sort of a gray area is set design. We're on a tier two or three, but we don't have to do these things. We don't have to have projection on stage. We don't have other elements.

And it's fun getting those conversations, because I hear budgets were tight. But then we start talking about reducing the set design, and they're like, "Oh, no, no, we gotta have a great set design."

Those are clients who've worked with us for years. They've seen what we do. So it's different maybe with a new client who hasn't seen the difference. But nobody wants to cut back on set design. If anything, they want to add to it.

Is It Actually Worth the Investment? 

We know that set design is so important to the production that sometimes we'll just do that at cost. It's such a distinction between our shows and others, and it's what every photo is after the event.

You can't go back once you've experienced a Cybis stage design.

A lot of people say they don't remember the three, four or five day conference, but they remember the general sessions. They remember the set - they can have details about what they saw on stage. So it's important to step up the stage design when you can, because that visual, that memory - it's always going to relate to their experience at the conference with that organization. It's always been a valuable investment.

If you've got an event on the calendar and you're weighing which tier makes sense for you, reach out and let's talk it through. 

Want to see what each tier actually looks like? Check out our visual stage design tier guide, featuring real builds from Cybis shows.

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