It doesn’t matter how many years you’re in a profession, there is always a space for improvement. Those event designers who don’t learn and think it’s just a waste of time, who don’t know the materials and the principles of composition, color matching, and proportions create false competition on a market. The true specialists, on the other hand, always be one step ahead, creating unique and elegant events for their clients.
What’s wrong with my event design?Why am I not among the top specialists?Why does my project look different when I copy some other event design?Why does the floristry look bad, even if the budget is impressive?
If you ask yourself any of these questions, probably you have to reconsider your workflow. We tried to answer them and analyzed the most common event design mistakes.
A mistake can happen on each step of the project
It could be the wrong concept which doesn’t match the venue or the budget. It could also be the wrong choice of materials during the realization, or the assembling when something goes wrong.Visual structure vs lack of concept, random elements
Design is a structure. It should be a consistent visual impression. To get that you need to know how to work with color, materials, and composition.
Sometimes you have the same principles of geometry, assortment of flowers, modern materials, but the whole design still looks different.
The flowers, banners, and backdrops could interfere with each other, so the whole impression will be messy. It happens when the design doesn’t have one idea, the elements don’t connect to each other, there is no main design idea.Visual harmony vs disharmony
You need to pay attention to the harmony of your decoration. It’s good when it looks clear and the accents are right.
When it comes to several accents, e.g. heavy bottom part with airy hanging installation, it becomes messy and the image becomes disharmonious.
Another common mistake: combining both symmetry and asymmetry elements. For example, in the ceremony, you put the floral installations near the guest chairs in a symmetrical way, but closer to the altar part the decoration is asymmetrical. It breaks the whole picture and balance.The main idea in floristry vs lack of concept
Think of your flower assortment. If you take cortaderia, you should understand that it’s a very impressive and active greenery, so the installation should support it with the colors and form. The form should be natural. Combining it with bright color roses without proper grouping could be a bad idea.
You should always think about how to support your main idea with floristry. If you make an event in graphic and comic style, it will be strange to make garden-style floristry.Unity and integrity
You should remember about the proportions of the whole decoration, not only one zone or part. You should consider how it looks from afar, whether all elements are supported or not.
The floristry should be grouped, the expensive flower sorts should be visible. Otherwise, the impression won’t be as great as you expect.Balance
Our eyes work wonderfully: if we see balance, we feel calm and confident. If something is not balanced, we notice that immediately and feel worried and a little bit stressed.
Event designers like to make asymmetry because the effect could be really stunning.
Unfortunately, sometimes there is just too much of it. Imagine that you have a lot of flowers on the right side of the arch and none of it on the left - the effect will be like the arch is falling down.Proportions
Keep an eye on the proportions of your installations. If you create a big and massive top part make sure you will balance it with the bottom. Sometimes you need to make more columns for support, sometimes you need to experiment with the width of your vertical stands. If you forget about it the result could be awful: it will be a big cloud on thin legs, which seems like it is ready to fall at any minute.Associations
We have a lot of visual information inside us that affect our perception. You see something and you instantly think of something else. Keep that in mind and try to avoid common forms or colors that can lead to the associations you don’t want to have.Mirrors and reflective surfaces
A lot of event designers make mirror arches. The result is that on the photos you see the guests or somebody’s legs because all of them reflect in the arch. It looks terrible. There are plenty of ways to avoid it. We suggest making a combination of smaller mirror pieces instead of the big reflective surface.Props
Another common mistake is to make props, figures, and other complicated elements by themselves. As a result, the decorations look cheap and messy. You should find professionals who know how to make good-looking props and work with the materials.Big masses of flowers
Very often you look at the floristry of the project and see a lack of roughness and difference in height. There is no thin and wide parts of flower installation like it should be. As a result, they all look like one big flower massive. Think about more natural ways to arrange the flowers, remember how they grow in nature, look for some pictures as references for your installations.
Remembering all these things can help you to improve your projects. Try to analyze your previous decorations and find what could be better, so you could learn on your own mistakes and grow.
If you want to learn how to create a solid and consistent concept and bring it to life, we are happy to see you among our students of Event & Wedding Design courses