2026 Bespoke Darts Stage - Large Print Design

Starting up as a Graphic Designer was a very steep learning curve, and like most designers I look back at my previous work with a degree of embarrassment - my learning has been placed in front of everyone to see - and in some cases even financially promoted on social media.

My background and training has always been in journalism and marketing - Graphics was originally my weakness and something I dedicated myself to learning to 'plug the gap' in my skill set and then it over took all the other parts!

This is not more obvious than when it comes to large print and large designs - it was something I had never encountered in the world of media and digital marketing and it took some serious learning and eating of humbe pie (and i am certain there is more to go!)

At the end of 2023 i was tasked with designing an XL darts stage for MDA and MODUS exhibitions - this was nothing like anything I had ever done before - but how hard could it be! I found out VERY quickly

My original design was completely wrong and the resolution of each image was far too low. I had to go to every sponsor and was VERY grateful for the staff at the printing firm with their patience with me

Eventually I managed a design that was used and I have hated ever since!

Thats not to say its bad - but all designers will understand this mentality

Flash forward to 2025 and I was tasked with designing a fresh stage design for the exhibitions going into the new year. I absolutley took the task on because I had been waiting to remove the older design. Still I faced the challenges associated with stepping out of my comfort zone.

My favourite part of any project is research and coming up with ideas and finding inspiration - naturally there is an expectation with a darts stage and looking at the PDC and the large exhibitions, a half dart board was the obvious choice - when a customer comes to an exhibition, I want them to experience the entire main event, TV darts feel.

I started with the colour scheme of black and gold to match the MODUS brand - and combine the gold with red to represent MDA - It also doesnt hurt that these colours are ideal for catching the eye (as colour theory states that the eye responds to red a lot quicker than any other colour - hence why stop signs and light are red)

I created the board image and added a gold and red texture overlay in the sections of the board and added a bevel to the wiring to make it stand out and have a slight 3D effect.

It was alsp requested that i use 'electricity' and 'lightening' within the design - which I gladly did as I have been experimenting with light effects in my recent work and really wanted to use teh lightening bolts as leading lines to draw the customers attention to the middle of the staging and towards the actual dart board

The rest was a case of adding the sponsors down the side panels - ensureing that the sponsors logo was up to date from 2 years ago and that I still had the Hi-Res files!

The final result was so much better (in my opinion) that the previous staging and I am pleased with how it has come out and seeing it in action around the country - with some of the biggest names in darts playing on the same stage!

I wonder if I will hate it in two years time?