Step and repeat

A step and repeat is a printed backdrop carrying a repeating pattern of logos, placed where arrivals are photographed. The name describes the artwork: the pattern steps across and repeats, so that whichever way somebody stands, a complete logo lands beside their head.

United States press walls are built on an eight-foot width. Eight by eight is the common size for a corporate reception, with eight by ten the usual red-carpet proportion and wider builds for a longer arrival line.

What decides whether it photographs well is almost entirely surface and spacing. The surface must be matte: a gloss vinyl under a camera flash produces a hot spot that blows out the logos directly behind the subject, which is the one part of the image the sponsor cares about. Spacing has to guarantee at least one unobstructed logo beside a head at any standing position, which is the entire function of a repeating pattern.

Clutter is the usual failure of judgement. Two to four logos read as professional; five or six is the practical ceiling; beyond that nothing is legible once a photograph is cropped to a head and shoulders.

Lighting it is the production part. Light from an angle rather than head on, and check for the subject’s own shadow falling across the wall before anyone arrives. Artwork must be vector; a logo supplied as a small raster file will be soft at print size.

Corporate event production — owned inventory, our own crew, and a site survey before anything is specified.

• Backdrop The surface behind the stage — fabric, printed, hard scenic or an LED wall — and the decision that sets what the lighting and the cameras can do.
• Soft goods The collective name for every piece of fabric in a production — drapes, legs, borders, skirts, cycs and backdrops — and a category that lives or dies on its paperwork.
• Stage wash The even, flattering light a person stands in to be seen — the least glamorous part of a lighting plot and the first thing a camera exposes as missing.