Chicago Scenic was recently featured in a story in Pro Lights and Staging News
An excerpt follows:
As a career lighting and sound guy I’ve worked around scenic elements on stages too many times to count. So this article has been a great opportunity to learn about the state of the art in scenic design and meet some of the players in this relatively small yet vibrant industry. Having interviewed several interesting people in the scenic design, construction management, motion control and scenic construction trades, I found this is an industry of market diversity. Some companies gravitate to one segment more than another for obvious financial or geographic considerations, but most shops do everything – retail, tradeshow exhibits, music tours, themed environments, television, cruise ships, amusement parks, etc. Flexibility is key to survival in the scenic design business.

In the windy city of Chicago you’ll find Bob Doepel. He’s the president of Chicago Scenic, has a master’s degree in fine arts from Carnegie Mellon and is and another nice scenic guy. Chicago Scenic does a lot of turnkey work – design, build, construction management and construction. 75% of their work comes from architects, theatrical designers, acousticians, etc with the rest as "word of mouth and referrals" says Bob. They employ four full time designers to interface with their specifier clientele.

Some of Chicago Scenic’s customers include the Oprah Winfrey Show, Disney Quest Chicago, and the "Carmen" tour. Bob says, "In the television business I see electronic backgrounds killing conventional sets in the future. But then there are live events like the Miss America Pageant and the Democratic National Convention where the scale and spectacle of the event has precluded the use of the technology to date. However, I saw a show that I did set work on the other day on television, and there were scenic elements I never saw on any of the soundstages; I then realized it was electronic. It had me fooled! We still do television sets but not as many as in the past."

Chicago Scenic is a very modern shop that also offers CAD to CNC capability. When I asked about the staff and what sets them apart, Bob said "we prefer a team, theatrical approach to what we do – we all come together to deliver the designer’s vision. We do all sorts of work – theatrical, retail, theme parks, television, but we strive to bring theatrical touch and technique to everything we do." When asked where his business was growing, Bob said " I’ve really seen retail taking off for us. Though the Internet has hurt some general merchandisers, I think people are starting to view shopping in themed stores as a leisure activity. As a result more retailers are striving to attract these shoppers with what we do, which is good for us." Bob said they were pretty busy too.

I asked him what the most ridiculous thing they ever had to build was and he answered, "A giant bug zapper for a tradeshow customer. It was over 10’ in diameter." I asked him if it was functional (did it really zap?), but I got the impression he didn’t think that would have been such a good idea.