Kids/Youth Designs

Have Fun Storming the Castle

Angela Yee with the team from University Covenant Church in Davis, CA brings us this stage design for their summer day camp for kids (formerly VBS).

From Angela: This year’s theme was “Breakaway to the Royal Kingdom,” and the direction they gave me was they wanted to make a large castle in the front of the church.

I created the logo by working from an image of a castle that was purchased from Envato Elements and creating other elements to make a logo. This logo was going to be used on the web, in print, and on banners, T-shirts and CDs, so it had to be versatile. The leaders I worked with wanted it to be colorful.

I used to do a lot of logo work from scratch, but nowadays there are many subscription services that provide templates and artwork that may be integrated into designs. I have found this saves a lot of time, reduces cost for the client, and allows me to focus more on the parts I really like, which is the set and stage design.

The real fun for me was going 3D. I created a 3D castle set for the front of the church. The new approach this year was to extend the set above the central arch. Usually sets fall below the arch because it is a lot of work to go above it. I drew the design in Illustrator to get an idea of scale.

After that I moved to Google Sketchup. Sketchup is really great for envisioning 3D elements, though sometimes it can be a little funky with skewed angles. However, using it allowed me to show what this castle would look like in the space from an eye-level perspective.

When I capture screen shots, I always try to get them from eye-level view so the client can see what it might look like from the perspective on someone standing there.

After that, it was time for all the dimensioning. This was a complicated set to create so I had to do elevations, ground plans, and section cuts.

Part of the camp is to have a live drama every day. The story was complicated because it involved being in different settings. The stage does not have fly space to lift up sets, so everything had to be changed by hand, which meant it had to be light and portable. In addition, one requirement was to have a platform for dancers to be on a second story.

From the top view, you can see the platforms for dancing. Each one is a little over 3 feet wide and 11 feet long.

I designed it so Styrofoam flats could be placed in front. The center building had to be tall enough to cover the castle tower in the back. (The two side towers could easily be removed because they would be made of Styrofoam.)





Throwback: Wiggly Pipe Set Wrapped in Ceiling

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