Overview

Ghost Stag Productions was an experiential marketing and production company I founded and led from 2011 to 2019. Based in Portland, we delivered immersive environments for national and regional brands and large-scale live events across the West Coast, spanning branded hospitality lounges, scenic and stage design, interactive installations, and full art programs.

As founder and creative director, I led every engagement end to end, from concept and site planning through fabrication, installation, and on-site operation, while managing client relationships, budgets, multidisciplinary teams, and vendor partnerships.

Over nearly a decade, we partnered with leading brands and many large-scale live events, including Sierra Nevada, Ninkasi, Avid Cider, Swift Cider, Northwest String Summit, Symbiosis Gathering, Dirtybird Campout, What the Festival, the Oregon Country Fair, and the Portland Winter Light Festival.

Stage Design + Scenic Environments

Branded environments at festival scale. We designed and built stage environments, scenic backdrops, and branded spaces for large-scale live events, with multi-year engagements at Symbiosis Gathering, Dirtybird Campout, What the Festival, and Beloved, and three years at the Portland Winter Light Festival.

For Northwest String Summit, we developed a custom, modular stage system. The event was already 15 years established when we were engaged, and for four years our team designed, transported, and installed every stage, built to scale as the event grew. We also led site planning, mapping stage and zone placement as the layout evolved year to year.

Brands partnered with us to own the guest experience. For Sierra Nevada, Avid Cider, Swift Cider, and Ninkasi, we created hospitality lounges, pop-ups, and branded displays that put each product at the center of the event, supported by custom signage for brands like Sierra Nevada.

Our environments extended beyond festivals. For Mian, a five-month regional Chinese culinary pop-up in Portland, we designed and installed a complete outdoor food service and lounge area, including custom lighting, service stations, and seating. Across Portland, we were a long-standing production partner for Howl, Portland City Repair's fundraiser, and White Out, along with Down the Rabbit Hole and other local productions.

Interactive Art Installations

Our signature installation, the Dream Machine, was an interactive audio experience that transformed voices and music into an immersive, responsive soundscape through layered FX processing and custom audio design.

The installation was booked by request across the West Coast. Developed for What the Festival, it was requested by Dirtybird founder Claude VonStroke for the inaugural Dirtybird Campout, invited to Symbiosis Gathering, featured for two years in the Oregon Country Fair's new Craft Bubble zone, and customized for Sierra Nevada at Northwest String Summit 2019.

I led its redesign into a single, tour-ready structure. Originally a sound-reactive light installation set inside two existing pods, it evolved into a custom pod I designed, with a stainless steel frame and 10+ 3D light panels fabricated and assembled in-house, engineered for rapid breakdown and redeployment.

Our installation portfolio also included interactive work for Northwest String Summit, Beloved, and the Portland Winter Light Festival.

Art Curation + Artist Management

We managed end-to-end art programs for large-scale live events, curating, designing, and installing art zones while recruiting and coordinating artists, planning layouts, and overseeing installation.

For What the Festival, we designed and managed a multi-acre art environment. Over three years, we curated a program of more than 300 artists across 50 installations, leading site planning in-house and partnering with the event's ownership on a custom trail system and curated zones. By its second year, it had become the event's signature attraction.

At Northwest String Summit, we designed and built the Art Pond, a custom art zone featuring artists we managed across four years, anchored in 2019 by a customized interactive installatoin for Sierra Nevada.

I designed the lighting for our art zones at large-scale outdoor events, creating a cohesive nighttime environment across our team's work and the artists we represented, while coordinating artists, crews, and schedules across multiple zones for the full run of each event.

Production + Operations

From boutique productions to large-scale live events, I led multidisciplinary teams through on-site production, managed client relationships and budgets, and built long-term vendor partnerships that ensured consistent delivery. Event producers including Living Prism, Rose Entertainment, and Uplift partnered with us, and Portland City Repair engaged us for community projects.

Our capabilities extended to screen, print, and stage, including art direction for video, print, and marketing, production design for music videos and film sets, and stage design for live performance productions across Portland.

Outcome

• Nearly a decade of experiential marketing. Immersive environments, hospitality lounges, and brand activations for brands and large-scale live events across the West Coast.
  
  

• A scalable stage system. Custom, modular stages for all of Northwest String Summit, installed by our team four years running.
  
  

• 300+ artists, 50 installations. A multi-acre art environment that became What the Festival's signature attraction.
  
  

• A signature installation in demand. The Dream Machine was booked by request across the West Coast, from Dirtybird Campout and Symbiosis to the Oregon Country Fair and a custom build for Sierra Nevada.
  
  

• The foundation of my immersive work. The spatial and interactive design thinking behind Ghost Stag continues to inform my work in 3D, XR, and product design.

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