TAIT Take Over documented behind the scene elements of the most anticipated tour of 2017, Lady Gaga’s Joanne World Tour. Matthew Lotito, Studio Lead Designer at TAIT, invites you into his work space and shares the design process from concept to completion for the ultimate live event experience.
Hi, I’m Matthew Lotito, Studio Lead Designer at TAIT Towers.
As a Studio Lead, I oversee a group of four designers. Together, we develop and design staging and structures. My studio designed the main stage and b-stage for Lady Gaga’s Joanne World Tour. We integrated the fascia, the LED and we tested the weight capacity of the acrylic decks.
We get a concept from production and it’s up to us to take that concept and manipulate it into something that we can design and manufacture while still meeting the clients requirements and be able to have it tour all around the world.
We used an 1/8th inch black polycarb for the fascia. We had a dichroic overlay which we attached to the polycarb. This fascia completely surrounded the b-stage.
On the b-stage, there is a performer lift. This is what allows Gaga and her dancers to move from the bridges down to the B-stage.
It’s really important to test the weight from the bridges to see how much force we can put on the acrylic. We started with a lower weight and we continued to add more and more weight to see what the breaking point of the acrylic was. It’s unrealistic that the bridge would produce that much force but we needed to test it to see if there was a breaking point and to make sure that we were within our safety values.
After opening night, I was really blown away. The designs from the main stage to the B-stage to the bridges were very thought out. I couldn’t be more proud to be part of that design.
To see everything TAIT produced for the Joanne World Tour, click here!
