Foundations

The title of the series was "Foundations" but the goal wasn't to go literal with the set. Literal sets tend to be more theatrical requiring a lot of elements to look full, non cheesy. On a tight budget it's often difficult to get the amount of detail wanted in a look. On the other hand a nice clean abstract look can communicate the same theme while looking complete stand alone.

So, the inspiration was building blocks with a sort of tetris feel. The blocks are made from coroplast and the cheapest local source I found was Tarheel Paper Co. Many people sell coroplast as a printing medium but if you buy it from a shipping supply/grainger type place it'll tend to be less expensive. I think it was less than $12 for a 4'X 8' sheet of white. The coroplast was cut into 24" X 24" squares and made into cubes using the wonderful magic of duct tape. Black duct tape to be specific. It's about $10 cheaper per roll than gaff tape so that's why I used it. Anyway, the cubes were actually hollow and I inserted some 4' florescent tubes inside the cubes. The tubes were on dimmers so I was able to light the cubes from the inside as well as splash color from the outside. It was a really simple look that was inexpensive.

Here's a little video of the look in action during a sound check: