when i started d*s four years ago the last thing i thought about were parties and events. i’m a pretty big homebody so the thought of getting out of my pajamas and into uncomfortable heels late at night isn’t exactly my cup of tea. but despite not being a big party person, i am a big party-planning person. i may not be a big-event type of gal, but i do love having people over for drinks, dinner and brunch. planning details like tableware, place cards and food presentation always makes me happy. so when our summer intern christy and i got to meet event designer extraordinaire david stark a few weeks ago we left feeling like we had met event royalty. and considering david has designed events for clients like rachael ray, conde nast, target, and nicole miller he really is the king of event design.

but what sets david apart from the crowd is his growing commitment to keep event planning as sustainable as possible. when we sat down to talk the other week one of the things he mentioned to us was trying to work with materials that are either reusable or recyclable. i never really thought about all that gets thrown away after a party (let alone an event for 4,000) so to hear about david’s ideas for eco-friendly and thoughtful event planning was really eye opening.

one of the events that really caught our attention was david’s design for the robin hood foundation’s event at the javits center. as part of the event, large corporations donated products like sneakers, bottles of water, computers and towels that could be given to those in need. david was committmed to creating a design that would not only use the raw materials/gifts as the actual design, but would leave them in perfect condition so that they could be given away after the event. some of the ideas he used were incredible so we thought it would be fun to show you how something like the robin hood event, shown in its final form above, comes together from start to finish.

to read the rest of this post and see david’s idea for a giant chair made of water bottles, a house made of towels, centerpieces made from computer screens and of course, the shoe tornado, CLICK HERE (or just click “read more” below)….

where it all began: the david stark design team had a mission to transform a raw event space in the javit center into a “science fair” inspired space that showcased various donations turned into oversized sculptures- all of which would allow the original materials (aka, the donations) to be reused in their original condition.

how do you build a shoe tornado? with a giant net, of course. in order to showcase the incredible donation nike made, david stark’s design team created a funnel-shaped net that would allow them to carefully tie each shoe (wow) to the net without damaging the shoe or needing to cut into it. once the piece were connected the net was raised to create the tornado effect.

no more leftover flowers- rather than use traditional floral centerpieces, stark design used the donated computers (which were later donated to those in need) to showcase a rotating screensaver of traditional centerpieces.

donated pencils became larger than life when they combined to form one gigantic pencil. afterwards they were all separated to be donated to those in need.

water bottles were turned into a giant chair. each bottle of water was easily plucked off to be donated to the robinhood foundation.

the “house” above was made from squares built from folded towels, donated as part of the event.

*stay tuned for more on david stark throughout this year. we really love and believe in what he’s doing as a designer and will be covering his events this fall as well as recording interviews and videos with david himself.