Event backdrop: what a stage or photo wall has to do, and how it is built

An event backdrop has one job: to be read from where its audience actually is. A stage backdrop is read from the back row and by the camera, a photo wall only by the camera, an entrance sign by someone walking past. The ones that disappoint were designed on a screen, head on, with nobody in front of them.

Apart from running events, RBTHOL designs and builds the spaces they happen in, from stands to signage. Here is what a backdrop has to do, and then what it can be made of.

The three backdrops an event needs

The stage backdrop sits behind whoever is speaking, performing or receiving an award. It carries the event's name and the logo, and it is read from the farthest seat and by every camera pointed at the stage. At a gala dinner it is the picture the whole room faces, and on a themed night it is where the theme has to show first.

The photo wall is where guests are photographed, usually near the entrance. Nobody reads it from across the room. The camera reads it, a few steps away, with people in front of most of it. A step-and-repeat repeats the logo in a grid, so that any crop of any photograph carries it.

The entrance and signage tell a guest walking in that this is the right room and where to go. They are read in passing, so they carry less, larger. At an exhibition a stand's back wall is backdrop and sign at once, and on a shell scheme it is printed to the organiser's panel size.

What a backdrop can be made of

Four common ways of making one, and what each asks of the venue.

Ask the venue early what may be fixed to its walls or hung from its ceiling, whether materials must be flame-retardant, and when the room is free for load-in. On a quote a backdrop sits under production, an LED wall under AV, and what each line includes varies by supplier.

Seen from the back row: size, sightlines and the camera

Two things decide whether a stage backdrop works, and both can be settled before anything is printed. The first is height. Anything below the heads of the people on the stage is behind them for most of the night. A photograph from an event our team worked on shows why: a speaker standing in front of a title set low on the screen covers part of it, and the front light throws his shadow onto the screen beside him, while the logo set high in the corner reads clean.

The second is size. The farthest seat sets the smallest letter that still reads. The US accessibility standard for signs, the 2010 ADA Standards, table 703.5.5, publishes minimum letter heights by mounting height and viewing distance. The checker applies it to a stage.

The camera reads a backdrop differently again. At one launch our team worked on, a line of guests stood shoulder to shoulder across a step-and-repeat, and the logos still showed above and between their heads, because the pattern ran small and close across the whole wall. At another event, a photo wall carried one wordmark at head height, and a guest posing beside it threw her shadow across its first letter. So on a wall made for photographs, repeat the logo, or keep it clear of people and their shadows. The same read decides an exhibition stand.

A backdrop is designed head on and empty. It is seen at an angle, lit from the front, with people standing in front of it.

Approvals and timing

Two dates decide when a backdrop has to be ready, and neither is the event date. The first is the artwork sign-off: after it, a change of name or sponsor means a reprint. The second is the venue's load-in, which depends on what else is booked into the room that day.

When the runway is short, anything made for the night, such as a custom set or printed items, goes first. At three months out, custom build and printed items are the usual casualties, and hire stock and standard finishes take their place. A different look, not a failure, as long as it is a decision.

What to put in the backdrop brief

• Which backdrops: the stage, the photo wall, the entrance, or all three.
• The room: where each stands, the stage height, the farthest seat, and who stands in front.
• The cameras: a photographer, a stream, and whether photographs are posted in landscape or portrait.
• The light: whether the backdrop is lit on its own or only by the stage's front light.
• The dates: who signs off the artwork and by when, and the venue's load-in and strike times.
• Whether it is used again, at another event or at the next stop of a roadshow.

The rest of the event belongs in the event brief itself. The backdrop and the event in front of it are part of how we run exhibitions and events.

Common questions

What is an event backdrop?

The surface behind the people an event wants seen. There are usually three: the stage backdrop behind whoever is speaking or performing, the photo wall or step-and-repeat that guests are photographed against, and the entrance and signage that greet guests as they arrive. Each can be tension fabric on a frame, printed board, an LED wall or a built set, and each has to read from where its audience actually is: the back row, or the camera.

What is the difference between a stage backdrop and a photo wall?

Who reads it, and from where. A stage backdrop is read from the farthest seat, with people standing in front of it, so its title and logo go above the heads of whoever stands on the stage and are sized for that seat. A photo wall is read only by the camera, a few steps away, so its logo is either repeated across the whole surface or placed where a guest standing a little off centre will not cover it.

What is the simplest way to make an event backdrop?

Printed fabric on a frame, or a rigid printed board that stands up on its own. Each asks little of the venue: floor space for the frame and its feet, or a way to stand the board without fixing it to the walls. Fabric suits a photo wall or anything used again, and board suits an entrance or a one-off wall. An LED wall or a built set asks much more: power, a structure, stage time, a route in and load-in time.