Branded Guest Portraits for Corporate Events; the Minnesota Vikings at Kensington Palace | Cupid & Co
Guest Portraits for the Corporate Events; Minnesota Vikings at Kensington Palace
There are some venues that make you stop for a moment when you arrive, and the Orangery at Kensington Palace is one of them. Our team of live artists recently had the joy of creating guest portraits at the Minnesota Vikings' celebration event there, and it was a lovely example of how live art can be designed around a brand from the very first sketch.
Why live art works so well at corporate events
Most corporate entertainment is something guests watch. Live art is something they become part of. When a guest sits down at our Art Cart, they get a few minutes of genuine attention from an artist, they chat and laugh, and then they walk away with a hand-drawn portrait of themselves. It gives people a natural reason to mingle too, as guests gather to watch each portrait take shape and compare them afterwards.
A small problem with a palace
We'd already been booked for the event when we discovered that Kensington Palace doesn't allow live painters. As a historic royal palace, it has very strict conservation rules to protect the building, and paint was firmly on the list of things that weren't allowed.
Lissie wasn't going to let that stop us. She spoke with the venue team, put forward some solutions and compromises, and we agreed that our artists would work in pencil instead of paint. It meant we could still give every guest a beautiful hand-drawn portrait while respecting everything the palace needed to protect.
We weren't the only ones working around the rules. Certain flowers weren't allowed in case they stained the floors, and some cocktails and drinks were off the menu too. Even the cans of Coke that usually keep our artists going through long events had to be left at the door.
Getting through the palace gates
The rules didn't stop at paint and flowers. Every member of our team had to pass strict security checks before the event just to be allowed into the palace. On the day we had a set time to arrive and enter the building, with no room for running late, and each of us presented our ID at the entrance before we could bring anything inside.
Between the conservation rules, the security checks and the careful timings, it was one of the trickiest events we've ever navigated. It was also one of the most rewarding, and it taught us a lot about planning for high-profile venues where every detail has to be agreed in advance.
Designed around the Vikings brand
For this event we wanted everything to feel like it belonged to the Vikings, so we painted our Art Cart in our studio beforehand to match their branding, complete with the Vikings logo and their signature purple. Our display gallery was styled to match, and it looked beautiful against the purple florals in the Orangery.
We carried the branding through to the portraits themselves by adding the Vikings logo to the paper each illustration was drawn on. That meant every guest took home a keepsake that was personal to them and unmistakably part of the occasion.
Three artists for a short event
The celebration was fairly short, so we brought three of our artists to draw as many guests as possible. It's something we always think about when planning a corporate event, because the length of the event and the number of guests make a big difference to how many portraits can be created. Having more artists meant more guests could take part without long queues forming around the cart.
A little piece of London to take home
Many of the guests had travelled from overseas, so the client wanted them to leave with a British memento of the evening. We illustrated a postcard of the Kensington Palace gardens in the Vikings' brand colours for every guest to take home. It also meant that anyone who didn't have time to sit for a portrait still left with something hand-illustrated and meaningful from the night.
Live art for your brand
Every corporate event we work on is designed around the client, whether that's a painted Art Cart in your brand colours, your logo on every portrait or an illustrated keepsake that tells the story of the venue. And if your venue has rules that seem to rule out live art, we're always happy to find a way to make it work. Cupid & Co has also created live art for Amazon Music, and our founder Lissie has painted live at St Paul's Cathedral and more than 200 weddings and events across the UK and Europe.
If you're planning a product launch, client evening, team celebration or brand activation, we'd love to hear about it. Tell us about your event and your brand, and we'll suggest how live art could bring it to life.
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