Design After Dark | Cirque

The Design Council of the Denver Art Museum has put on Design After Dark for 9 years. Every year they have a one-word theme. Two years ago, it was LIGHT. Last year it was BESPOKE (which means 'custom made') and this year it was CIRQUE. Each art piece had to represent one of these three themes within the broader vision: CONTORTION, TENSION, or ILLUSION.

It 'underscores our community's creative talent. Leading design firms, emerging architects and artists, and a wide range of creative individuals and teams construct innovative one-of-a-kind objects to be auctioned off during the night.'

There is a silent auction on all the pieces displayed, great food, and a chance to dress up! I went out of personal interest in the event (I miss going to art events regularly like I did in Seattle) and in an effort to continually form connections within the art world and multi-generationally, they discounted tickets to almost half price for anyone under 30-perfect!

My friend Brooke's husband, Pat was one of the solo artists selected; such a big opportunity for him and it was great to be there to celebrate! Room and Board also donated an Edwin Chair to be auctioned off.

Last, I happened to run into my church's youth pastor and his wife there. She works for a local design, build firm and contributed to two pieces up for auction. Pretty cool!

Here are some of my favorites!

Here is Pat's piece. It is reflective of the safety nets they use during circus trapeze acts. It's as if someone has just bounced down and then back up and out of it. Very cool!

Here are Brooke, Heather and I representing Room and Board (what's with the sign?! ha!). 

There were big swaths of fabric on the ceiling to create the tent atmosphere (forgot to get a picture) and these brave ladies were wandering around. You couldn't pay me to walk around a crowded room filled with expensive art pieces on those things! Yikes! 

Such a great event; I am already looking forward to next year! 

2013 Showroom Pictures, Part 2-Lower

Here are the pictures from the Lower Level of the showroom!

 

2013 Showroom Pictures-Part1, Main

I am so, so excited to share these photos with you! It was hard to know beforehand what a big production our annual Floorchange was and I have survived my first one. :) In the course of one night, we changed 70% of our 20,000 sq ft showroom, with the help of nearly 30 partners from our Distribution Center and other stores. Absolutely incredible!

I am part of an amazing team that consistently believed in me when I doubted myself and was committed to making sure that everything got done on time. Many nights were spent dreaming about paint choices, rug/sofa combinations and lighting; every detail of our showroom was intentionally chosen down to the specific pillows and vases I wanted in each room. I had a binder that stored all my information, lists, etc and I brought it home with me every night for 4 months-it was my baby,ha.

I learned, through this incredibly intense planning process, how fulfilling it is to be in a job that suits the strengths and giftings God has given me; I love my job!!!

Here are pictures from the main floor of our showroom.

I didn't highlight the design style of each room, but the pictures are ordered as if you are walking around the showroom. The goal, in my planning process, was to diversify the customer journey through the space (i.e. don't put all the Pure Modern rooms next to each other or clump all the Mid-Century rooms together, etc).

Room and Board is known for their "greige" (grey + beige); we have a lot of things in every category of our assortment that fall under this color label. It is actually a pretty monumental task to diversify the room color palettes so that you don't have what we like to call a "sea of greige". Next to picking what collections to show in our limited space (we are the smallest showroom in the whole company!), this avoidance of the "sea of greige" is the biggest challenge I have. While there were moments I wanted to pull my hair out and give up, I couldn't be more thankful to God for faithfully allowing creativity to "flow" at just the right moments and graciously allowing things to come out pretty well. It is so fun to see it all in person, instead of just on paper!

I will do a second post of the room from our lower level.