Jackpot Adrian Lewis Darts Board Surround and Stage Design

Adrian Lewis is a British Darting icon - An apprentice of the legendary Phil 'The Power' Taylor, back to back world champion 2011 and 2012, 4x World Cup Winner and the original young talent in the world of darts

Adrian Lewis walked to Luke Littler could run

Adrian Lewis Darts Board Surround and Stage Design

Lewis is now a veteran of the darts scene and despite having 'lost' his tour card (for now - I fully expect / hope to see him back where he belongs at the Ally Pally before he retires) - The man known as Jackpot is incredibly active on the exhibition circuit and is delighting darts fans up and down the nation with his appearances and darts challenges

North West Events with the brilliant Paul Booth recently held a night with the former World Champion and as per usual with the guys in the North West of Britain they asked me to design a custom stage design and board surround

Without NW events i would never have began with dart board surrounds and i throughly enjoy the designing of them and believe they are a brilliant way to seperate your exhibition - Certainly for all the pictures that live on - on social media - production values speak quality for potentail new customers and seperate you from the competition

Before the event, I was asked to design the poster advertising the event - and due to my relationship with the company I am trusted to be creative with the design - and I leant into the 'Jackpot' aspect of Ady's persona

(the story is that in Las Vegas in 2005, Lewis was playing a fruit machine and won the 72k jackpot, but being only 20 years old, he was under the legal gambling age in America and wasnt allowed to claim his winnings!)

This poster formed the basis of the board surround and then the staging - as I loved the Casino style, as it fits the remit to be attractive, eye catching and appealing to the public.

Dart Board surrounds don't need to be TOO eye-catching as their entire point is to frame the focal point and enhance it (as well as protect the staging / wall) but still reflect the brand or superstar in question - plus I always like it to be similar to the event poster, to keep things all uniform

One of the challenges with a stage and surround is not to make them too similar - as to make each of them stand out - this is a lesson I learnt the hard way with the Scotland themed stage set I designed and put all my eggs in the one basket of the board surround and really struggled with the stage setting

This was not a mistake I planned on making again - despite me not being ENTIRELY disappointed with the final results - I knew I could do better for Adrian Lewis and North West Events.

For the staging I knew I wanted to stick with the JACKPOT / VEGAS theme but seperate from the green of the surround. I looked at things that were iconic to Las Vegas and chse the Sign, the Skyline and Neons.

The main Las Vegas sign was a perfect option as it gave me a chance to put a title on the stage - so I font matched the Vegas Sign and edited it to say 'JACKPOT ADRIAN LEWIS WIGAN' and then placed 3 images of Ady behind the sign - one of him with the World Championship Trophy, One of him celebrating and one front facing smiling.

I also decided to continue using the poker chips and casino icons - as they brought the surround to life with their 'explosion' effect - adding character and interest to the design, making it 10x more interesting!

The original poster had a large, gold poker chip on it with the price - I decided to carry this theme across the stage design, alongside the smaller chips and icons - but insteaf of the ticket price I added Lewis's achievements and scattered them across the design

Having the board and surround, the Adrian Lewis / Vegas sign and added icons (pokers chips and cards etc) the final piece was to find the correct version of the Vegas Skyline to complete the design

I settled on the pink version - that was very similar to a wallpaper from Grand Theft Auto - and finalised the look after a LOT of trial and error

After printing and being sent the images from Paul Booth and North West events - I shared the images to social media and was DELIGHTED to get a response from Lewis himself who said that he REALLY iked the design and look of the whole piece

I do enjoy creating these bespoke designs and am incredibly grateful for the creative freedom I am gifted. The fact that the customer, Adrian Lewis and all t pheaying customers at the event liked it - makes me incredibly happy to do what I do