Thursday, October 15, 2009

Tablescape and other terminology

I am a very practical person at the core, and I tend to like to use plain English when speaking to people - whether they are peers, colleagues, learners or clients. Lately though I have been meeting people who like to use very "fancy" terminology for the things we do every day. I definitely have some favorites. "Scenic crew", as in "We will have our scenic crew arrive at noon to begin the setup". Yes, they were referring to the people that were setting the linens and centrepieces, and in the past we would have called these people our set dec crew or our set up team, but scenic crew does sound so much more involved / important that I am planning to begin using this. No matter how simple or complex the set up is! "Tablescaping". In times past, we have referred to what goes on the table as a centrepiece, but when it goes beyond the centrepiece and becomes a story... well that is when it becomes a tablescape. The best example I have seen of this was for a man's 60th birthday, where the tables had highly elaborate stories of times in his life, his experiences and adventures brought to life through props and pictures, and these can be absolutely spectacular in their detail. "Soundscaping" - so much more important sounding than "background music". "Experiential" - what a truly fabulous word all around although the dictionary definition of "relating to or derived from experience" is not nearly so delicious as we make it sound when we create an "Experiential environment" "Bump in" and "Bump Out" - really so much more accurate given the size of loading bays and elevators that we typically have to use; and way, way more fun than "set and strike". Definitely more European and who does not want to be perceived as being more European? Those are just a few, I am going to keep seeking more!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for enlightening me on this new terminology! Keep em coming. K

    ReplyDelete