Rethink STAGE :: String Art

Let's start at the very beginning! I saved this picture from Instagram of the Catalyst conference, as a huge inspiration. I waited for a one word series to come along that could use a big, bold stage design to support what we wanted to communicate.

Steve Jobs said, "Creativity is just connecting things.." This was freeing to me a few years ago. Just keep your eyes & ears always open & save what you see.

Dots will start connecting & you will strategically pull some "awesome" off yourself!

Here's a quick photo tour of how we made this happen for our stage in "RETHINK." We planned to use 7 pieces of basic plywood, 4' x 8' sheets, painted black. This would make the piece 8' x 28'. I also wanted the word to overlap the seams so that you'd get the optical illusion in the end.

Our handy friend & volunteer, Larry painted & prepped the plywood & we stood it up on our stage. We realized we like 24' better, so we took one down.

Here's how it stands from behind with support...

Next, we projected the series font & traced it with chalk.

Then, a crew of volunteers came & added nails around all of the letters & the perimeters of all the boards.

We took the "r" & strung it for a sample before our TEAM NIGHT, when a huge crew will string up the rest. You'll see that we also added random nails to be more start points in between the letter & the border.

There are NO rules. Seriously. Go for it & be WOW'd!

My feet for scale... I'm DYING - it looks so good!

DONE! ...and it happened super fast.

We stored the rest of the pieces until team night.

Team night is a night for all Crossroads Creatives (music,tech & video) to come for dinner, vision, training, inspiration & time together (quarterly). We had all of the boards prepped & ready. 5-8 people came around each one & strung them in about 45 min.

Then we started putting them together...

And took an EPIC GROUPIE!!!

We couldn't forget about the whole crew that didn't get in the pic, cause they were keeping us safe.

Remember that extra piece? We built a quick "dinners" board, because we also decided to do "rethink dinners" after Saturday services in the series. They're unreal & need their own post!

WOW!

Now go & build this for your church, classroom, kids room, studio.. or save it until your dots connect for a project down the road that you don't even know about yet. And when you go make your version, please share it with me! That's the best part of sharing ideas & how to's!

XO - - - Jessica

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***Finishing touches before our FINAL execution..

We strung nail to nail, outlining each letter & board. This was meticulous, but certainly finishes it off & makes the letters pop even more.