King's Screech - Halloween Event - The Hive
The cultural collaborative, Hive approached me with a great event idea and crunched pockets and a deadline with a timeframe of 15 days.In turn they were provided with an immersive experience inspired by the Stephen King novels and other monstrosities topped with a touch of dark humour highlighting various fears and phobias. The true challenge to overcome here was the a team of unskilled amateurs trying to help me bring my brainchild to life. The result was an ingenuous, intricate collaboration between "overnight artists", experienced vendors and an events design fresher. The project pushed me to come through as more than just a designer. It brought into perspective the importance of adopting a more hands on role to get optimum results under less than optimum circumstances. This involved me being intimately involved in every little process through all stages of execution.
-Sakshi Mathur (Freelance Event Design)
Dried branches created a haunted forest effect for the long ,narrow entry way.
The haunted forest corridor leads to the sisters from the legendary Stephen King classic, "The Shining". The visitors have to move past the sister to enter the main venue,imitating the horrors from this age old classic.
A salem's monster photo booth was an ode to another Stephen King classic ,Salem's Lot.
This installation was reminder of the horrors of mankind and it's frivolous nature.
The frivolous urban monsters .
Blood splattered "help me" lanterns ,neon bats and the baphomet's sigil help create an environment of trepidation.
The silver goblets, rosaries, human skulls ,the book of death, the inverted pentagram and candles adorned this orthodox satanic ritual inspired wall to form another photo corner.
Columns were enveloped in dried twigs and skulls to add to the haunted dilapidated look.
The floating,creeping hand has always an age old terror tactic that was interpreted within the space using mannequin hands wrapped in a creeper cladded trellis.
The cafe had jar lighting throughout the space. These jars were transformed into blood and toxic waste containers to add the spook factor of the event.
The bar counter received its own doze of chills with the mangled,bloody dolls light installation.
The dilapidated motel theme continued into the washroom area with faded worn outs paintings hung crookedly on the walls and a dark arts neon sigil on the door .
The cafe signage was made to imitate that of an old,battered American motel.
The over all lighting for the event was kept dim with only accent lights and decorative light elements along with black lights setting the mood for the space.
This wall became one of the most interactive feature of the event has it piqued the visitor's curiosity with the "Black magic" sigils running along the border of the matte black vinyl that acted as an effective chalk board. It encouraged visitors to get creative and come up with their own one line horror stories.
The digital art created for the matte vinyl board.
The event signages were designed to look like delapidated ,blood stained street signs and were arranged on a rusted pole at the event venue for further effect.
The signages directed the visitors to the various zones of the venue.The cafe name was made to resemble a worn out American "Motel" signage.