Stage Designs

Throwback: Heroes

Cameron Smith and his team at Christ’s Church of the Valley in Peoria, Arizona put this amazing stage together–inspired by the industrial look of the Marvel comics movies.

The design was for a 10-Week series on some of the heroes from the Bible. The series highlighted guys (and gal) like Moses, Noah, Daniel, David, Nehemiah, Esther, Abraham and a few others.

The design was created using hand-painted wood panels to give the stage a “grungy metal” feel. The letters were laser-cut styrofoam letters. They hand-painted the letters to match the typography of the series’ artwork. They also took the design into their lobby with hanging banners and outside with vinyl applications on the windows.

During the worship/music time they used projection on the wood panels to add color and dynamics.



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29 responses to “Throwback: Heroes”

  1. jthtiger says:

    whoa.

  2. Steven Hall says:

    Thats amazingly beautiful. Very epic. I'm a huge fan of it. Great Job

    ,Steven

  3. jimmy hudson says:

    this is incredible. I think we are totally going to steal this idea.

  4. jimmy hudson says:

    any idea where I would start to find someone to cut out foam letters like that? I'd love to do that but have no idea where to start

    • Hey Jimmy. The typical way you cut foam is with a "hot knife". You can find those at Hobby Lobby or other craft stores. The foam you can buy at Home Depot or even craft stores (sometimes). Hope that helps!

    • Margo says:

      Hello, we for a long time looked for the option to cut foam, the worst thing we did was to lose a lot of material because we did not know how to do it. Fortunately we found in Amazon Electric Knife Hot Knife Foam Cutter Foam, at first if it was difficult because we did not practice but I recommend it very much is super easy to use and really very accessible.

  5. Dane Horner says:

    Hi guys,

    We do not own a laser-cut machine. However, the styrofoam company we have a contact with, does. We sent them an AutoCAD file (exported from Vectorworks) and they did the cutting for us. Because of the size (8 feet high) this was the best option for us, when weighing cost, convenience, and resources available to us.

    Hope that helps,
    Dane
    Christ's Church of the Valley

    • jimmy says:

      So did they ship those to you or was it a local company.

    • Wesley Knott says:

      Greetings!
      I’d be interested in receiving a few more details regarding the giant styrofoam letters. (it’s not every day you get to say that!)

      If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind emailing me the cost, time, etc? I am in dire need of something to that effect.

    • Suzetta says:

      Dane, what is your email address? I want the name/number of the company that did your letters for Heroes. Thanks, Suzetta

  6. Dane Horner says:

    Hi Jimmy,

    It was a local company here in the Valley.

  7. Dane Horner says:

    Jimmy, feel free to email me. Allow me to be a resource for you.

  8. kristine says:

    i so love this idea! We already copy this design in our local church in our series called "Strong"

    Thank you very much for sharing :)

  9. Tim Yates says:

    Just curious how you painted the panels? With color? With just white and then light? A couple of colors and blend them towards the center? Curious.

    Tim

  10. Dane says:

    Hi Tim,

    Yes, we painted the panels with color. I worked closely with the scenic design team to ensure the correct color choice and lighting design worked well together. You can pick-out the color scheme that’s consistent from picture to picture and see the textures.

  11. Brenda says:

    Would love to know where you got your bible hero images? Thanks

  12. Dane says:

    Hi Brenda – We shot all of the pictures in-house. Doing this allowed us to achieve the specific-aesthetic we were wanting to achieve.

    – Dane

  13. jon says:

    HI,
    i love the design!
    I was wondering if you could tell me which font you used

    • Dane says:

      Hi Jon,

      Allow me to ask a clarifying question: Are you curious about the artwork overlayed onto the font or simply the font in it’s pure form, itself?

  14. Dane says:

    Hi Jon,

    Allow me to ask a clarifying question: Are you curious about the artwork on the font or simply the font in it’s pure form, itself?

  15. Mike Mallory says:

    Dane,

    Amazing work, how did you hang the foam letters?

    • Dane says:

      Hi Mike,

      We did not hang the foam letters; they’re sitting on a steel ladder, laying across the to center-stage boxes, held in place via a small rod.

  16. Alfred says:

    How did u fix e wooden background in place?

    • Dane Horner says:

      Hi Alfred,
      Two Ways:

      The panels on the ground are a 3 sided structure, reinforced in the back.

      The panels above are hung with weight-rated aircraft cable.

  17. Alfred says:

    thanx loads,Lastly ,can u gve me a quick tutorial on how paint e grunge look on e wood??

  18. Dane Horner says:

    Hi Alfred, If you’re looking for a quick-tutorial, you won’t be happy with your outcome.

    Instead, If you have a painter (or artist) in your church, I’d give him/her the above pictures and ask him/her to re-create it.

    Do you have a painter, or an artist, in your church?

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