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You may have heard the news: Lionel Messi, known to many as the greatest player in football/soccer history, is about to begin his first full season for Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami CF.
The FC Barcelona legend and World Cup winner joined the Miami club at the end of the 2023 season and was a force of nature — in fact, Messi scored 10 goals in his first 11 games.
Another impressive number attached to Messi’s arrival is the 3.5 billion people who tuned in for Messi’s unveiling to the Inter Miami supporters and fans around the world. Continue reading to see how industry veteran and Vectorworks expert Andres Albornoz helped put on the event watched by nearly a third of the world’s population.
Presenting the Next Stage of Messi’s Career
The Concept
Albornoz worked on the Messi unveiling with Black Stage Productions and Grid CAD & Rendering Corp, two companies based in Miami. The team focused on creating a production that was worthy of the occasion, but also one that matched Messi’s disposition. “He’s a very grounded guy,” said Albornoz, “so we didn’t want something exploding; we chose to just keep it simple and create something special for him.”
To strike the creative balance, Albornoz looked into why Messi chose to come to Major League Soccer. “It was family first, blood first. I ended up thinking about the flower of life, geometrical paths that assure one’s position in life,” Albornoz said.
The flower motif signifies that Messi chose Miami for the most important reason of all: family.
Bringing the Project to life with Vectorworks
Like so many productions, the biggest challenge for Albornoz was how little time he had to bring the project to life, with just a couple weeks of production planning, two days of loading, and only one day to program.
Unlike a project where Albornoz could take time drafting everything in great detail — like the record-breaking Karl G USA tour in 2023, for example — he needed to rely on Vectorworks Spotlight’s rich features to quickly pitch and build the project.
GDTF and MVR, for example, helped Albornoz and the production team previsualize the project with quick renderings and even pre-program all the lighting in no time at all. Simple extrusions, additionally, depicted the stage’s LED screen floor and other scenic elements.
Albornoz also used automatic area values within the Rectangle tool in Vectorworks to calculate how much of the grass needed to be protected during the event, one of Inter Miami’s primary concerns of the production. The tool helped communicate the stage’s dimensions, where cables would be laid, and what sections of the field would be needed for the unveiling.
With the graphics-forward nature of Vectorworks Spotlight, conveying all of the design’s important information was no issue for Albornoz.
The successful production had Vectorworks at the center, but as Albornoz acknowledged, it couldn’t have happened without a team. So, the designer wanted to call special attention to those who helped bring the Messi unveiling to life:
- Black Stage Productions
- Grid CAD & Rendering Corp
- LPS Productions
- Persival Productions
- Production Video Group
- CES Power
- Live and Loud
- Ronny Garcia, stage manager
- Nesmar Cepeda, lighting programmer
- Jorge Valdex, lighting director
- Rafael Perez, drafting and rendering
- Daniel Quinones, crew chief
Albornoz’s Passion for Vectorworks
Albornoz is no stranger to high-level productions, having an impressive career trajectory that started as a bouncer in Colombian night clubs to now being the production manager for globally recognized artists like Marc Anthony and Sebastian Yatra.
RELATED WEBINAR: HOW ALBORNOZ BROUGHT MARC ANTHONY’S “UNA NOCHE” TO LIFE
In addition to managing productions for famous artists, Albornoz spends his time being something of a Vectorworks evangelist for production designers, managers, and technicians across Latin America.
“In the United States, everything has a purpose and is organized during the production process,” Albornoz said. “In Colombia, when I first got into the industry, things were a bit more throw and go — any equipment was thrown in the truck, regardless of its use during an event.”
Albornoz didn't have any information on designing successful productions when he started in Colombia 30 years ago, he stated.
Now, Albornoz wants to be the source of design information and expertise he didn’t have. “If I can spread the word about Vectorworks, my work with others can be more professional, and communication will be easier . . . That’s why I’m so passionate about Vectorworks because I’ve been there. I struggled to have the information, and I love the information. Other designers, they want and need that information.”
Want Others to See Your Vectorworks Designs?
Show off your Vectorworks designs with the help of this webinar.
While we can’t guarantee 3.5 billion people will see your work like Albornoz, the webinar will guide you through best practices on using different social media platforms, examples of successful design firms using social media marketing, and how you can grow your audience.
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