Prada Mode returned for its eighth edition as a travelling social club combining contemporary art, music, dining and conversation. Hosted at ICD Brookfield Place in Dubai, the two-day programme centred on a new edition of Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy.

Kennedy London appointed Evolution to realise the artist’s concept within the landmark venue.

The task was to transform the space into an immersive cultural environment where the artwork, hospitality and social experience operated as one connected experience rather than separate event components.

The space needed to operate as a bar, dining setting, discussion venue and cultural installation, with every surface and object contributing to the recognisable world of Pharmacy.

The Challenge

Damien Hirst’s concept relied on a highly controlled visual identity. Medical references, bold surfaces, lighting, furniture and suspended artwork needed to be integrated with precision so the environment felt intentionally designed rather than a collection of individual production elements.

The installation also had to be delivered within an existing premium venue featuring eight-metre columns and complex overhead conditions. Safe rigging, accurate scanning and close coordination with lighting designers and project supervisors were essential to protect the artwork, maintain the architectural integrity of the space and achieve the intended creative vision.

The Solution

Evolution carried out a comprehensive ceiling scan to support the safe and precise rigging of artwork and artificial track lighting, working with FARO Studio and under the supervision of VCA Projects, the approach provided the technical confidence required to integrate suspended elements within the existing venue structure.

A custom central bar became the focal point of the social environment, supported by bespoke comfort furniture designed to encourage dining, conversation and evening interaction. The layout allowed the space to transition naturally between hospitality, cultural engagement and entertainment.

The visual identity of Pharmacy was extended throughout the venue through a life-sized medical display cabinet, transparent printed vinyl applied to the glazing and wallpaper wrapping across the eight-metre circular columns. These interventions transformed the existing architecture into an active part of the installation rather than a backdrop.

A miniature DNA molecule fabricated in Styrofoam created a suspended centrepiece above the guest environment, reinforcing the medical and scientific references that defined Pharmacy while adding a distinctive visual feature to the space.

Delivery Highlights

• Two-day Prada Mode cultural and hospitality programme at ICD Brookfield Place.
• Comprehensive ceiling scan supporting artwork and track-light rigging.
• Custom-built central bar and bespoke comfort furniture.
• Life-sized medical display cabinet interpreting the Pharmacy concept.
• Printed transparent vinyl and specialist wallpaper across the venue architecture.
• Suspended miniature DNA molecule installation.
• Coordination with Kennedy London, FARO Studio and VCA Projects.

Outcome

The venue was transformed into a fully realised edition of Pharmacy, where the bar, furniture, medical references and suspended installation worked together as part of one cohesive environment. Guests experienced Prada Mode as a cultural and social setting rather than a traditional event space with artwork added around it.

The success of the environment came from the integration of creative intent and production detail. Detailed scenic craftsmanship allowed a complex artistic concept to function naturally across dining, discussion and evening programming while preserving the distinctive visual identity of the installation.

Project Ecosystem

Client:

Kennedy London

Evolution Events: Supported programme coordination, venue integration and delivery alignment with Kennedy London and the wider Prada Mode schedule.

Evolution Scenic: Led the scenic realisation, ceiling survey, central bar, medical cabinet, column treatments, window graphics and DNA installation.

Evolution Furniture: Delivered the confirmed bespoke comfort-furniture package supporting dining and conversation.

Evolution Technical: Supported the confirmed artwork-rigging and artificial track-lighting integration within the venue environment.

The Qudwa Global Teachers' Forum brought more than 800 educators from around the world to Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi. Supported by the Education Affairs Office within the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi, the forum was created to empower teachers, encourage professional exchange and contribute to the future of education.

The creative opportunity was to make one of Abu Dhabi's most formal venues behave like a working learning campus. Evolution developed the Qudwa brand and used it to connect the complete delegate experience, from the main auditorium and nine breakout spaces to corridor content, hospitality, outdoor terraces and offsite visits.

This shifted the emphasis away from a single stage. The forum identity became a practical tool for orientation, content continuity and community, helping educators understand how each part of the programme related to a shared purpose.

The Challenge

The scale of Emirates Palace could easily have made the programme feel dispersed. Six new breakout rooms had to be created inside the ballroom, with three additional rooms elsewhere in the venue, while more than 800 teachers moved between formal content, collaborative sessions, hospitality and external activities.

The experience also needed to accommodate senior dignitaries, international delegate travel, speaker content and multiple live environments. Every touchpoint had to carry sufficient authority for a high-profile forum without losing the openness required for teachers to participate and exchange ideas.

The Solution

Evolution began with a flexible visual identity that could move between ceremonial, educational and social settings. In the ballroom, six fully customised breakout rooms created a venue within the venue, each with its own stage and backdrop but tied to the wider forum through a consistent graphic language. The main auditorium and three further breakout rooms extended the same identity across the palace.

The delegate journey continued outside scheduled sessions. Custom infographics turned the corridors into a layer of editorial content, while the buffet environments and furnished terraces created recognisable places for conversation. These settings were not treated as decorative additions; they provided the informal social infrastructure that allows professional relationships to develop between sessions.

Evolution managed the auditorium setup, AVL production and speaker content, alongside branded materials, floral details and the wider event environment. The published project scope also included travel for 800 international guests and offsite visits showcasing Abu Dhabi, requiring the event narrative and guest communication to extend beyond the venue itself.

For a programme of this type, Evolution's planning approach connects room use, content control, guest movement and venue access from the outset. At Qudwa, that integrated thinking allowed the palace to support a complex education programme while retaining a clear sense of welcome, purpose and shared identity.

Delivery Highlights

• Creation and application of the Qudwa event brand across physical, printed and digital touchpoints.
• A main conference auditorium supported by nine breakout environments.
• Six fully customised breakout rooms constructed within the Emirates Palace ballroom.
• Corridor infographics extending the learning narrative between sessions.
• Full AVL production and coordination of speaker content.
• Travel and delegate logistics for 800 international guests, including offsite visits.
• Custom hospitality settings, terrace furniture, floral details and branded elements.

Outcome

Qudwa gave more than 800 educators a coherent route through plenary debate, focused workshops and informal exchange. The brand and spatial plan made a large palace environment easier to understand, while the workshop, corridor and hospitality settings kept learning visible beyond the main stage.

The lasting strength of the experience was its balance: formal enough for an international forum, yet sufficiently open and practical for educators to work, connect and contribute.

Project Ecosystem

Client:

Crown Prince Court

Evolution Events: Led the event strategy, brand development, delegate journey, production management, content coordination and live delivery.

Evolution Scenic: Fabricated and installed the customised stages, backdrops, breakout-room environments, auditorium elements and branded physical features.

Evolution Technical: Delivered the full AVL production supporting the main auditorium, presentations and breakout content.

Evolution Furniture: Provided the custom furniture and hospitality settings used across the outdoor terraces and delegate breakout areas.

The Esports World Cup 2025 brought together thousands of competitors, spectators and international audiences across multiple venues in Riyadh. Behind the spectacle was an operation involving numerous specialist suppliers, technical disciplines and simultaneous venue builds, all requiring careful coordination to deliver a seamless live experience.

Working alongside Vanguard, Evolution provided the technical oversight, production management and creative design expertise that ensured every discipline operated to a consistent standard. From electrical and AV assurance through to scenic oversight, production coordination and event-wide design, our teams helped transform multiple independent workstreams into one unified event.

The Challenge

Delivering an event of this scale required far more than managing individual suppliers. With AV contractors, scenic builders, caterers, activation teams and technical specialists working across multiple venues simultaneously, maintaining consistency, safety and quality became the project's greatest challenge.

Every installation required verification that the correct equipment had been specified, installed safely and delivered in accordance with broadcast standards. Electrical infrastructure, structural installations, rigging, LED systems, scenic construction and production logistics all needed to work together without compromise.

At the same time, the event's visual identity had to remain consistent across every venue, from the opening ceremony through to supporting environments and audience touchpoints.

The Solution

Working alongside Vanguard, Evolution provided the technical oversight, production management and creative support that unified delivery across the Esports World Cup 2025.

Our teams coordinated multiple suppliers across several venues, ensuring electrical, AV, scenic and structural installations were delivered safely, correctly and to a consistent standard. Production managers maintained alignment across parallel workstreams, while our in-house creative team developed the event's 2D graphics and 3D design for the opening ceremony and supporting venue environments.

By combining technical assurance with coordinated production and creative design, Evolution helped deliver a seamless, broadcast-ready event at international scale.

Delivery Highlights

• Multi-disciplinary technical assurance across electrical, AV, scenic and structural installations.
• Electrical load verification, power distribution planning and generator coordination.
• Broadcast-standard AV assurance covering equipment, rigging, lighting and audio systems.
• Scenic oversight including carpentry, LED integration, scaffolding and ballast verification.
• Central production management coordinating suppliers across multiple venues.
• 2D event graphics delivered across the live event lifecycle.
• 3D design for the opening ceremony and supporting venue environments.
• Integrated delivery alongside Vanguard throughout the wider event operation.

The Outcome

The Esports World Cup 2025 successfully delivered one of the world's most ambitious esports productions through careful planning, coordinated technical oversight and collaborative delivery.

Working alongside Vanguard, Evolution ensured that multiple venues, suppliers and technical disciplines operated as one cohesive event. From technical assurance and production management to creative design, our teams maintained the quality, safety and consistency required for a live international broadcast watched by audiences around the world.

The project demonstrates Evolution's ability to integrate seamlessly within large-scale delivery teams, providing specialist expertise that supports complex, high-profile events from planning through to live operations.

Project Ecosystem

Evolution Site Services:

Electrical assurance including supplier load verification, building power coordination, generator support and installation compliance.

Evolution Technical:

Broadcast and AV assurance covering equipment verification, rigging, lighting, audio systems and technical compliance.

Evolution Scenic:

Scenic oversight across carpentry, LED installations, scaffolding, structural elements and supplier quality assurance.

Evolution Production:

Overall production management coordinating disciplines, schedules and supplier integration across multiple venues.

Evolution Creative:

Event-wide 2D graphics together with 3D design for the opening ceremony and supporting venue environments.

Vanguard:

Lead delivery partner responsible for overall event operations, venue management, technical infrastructure, broadcast integration, festival production, logistics and operational planning, with Evolution providing specialist technical, production and creative support.

The Youth Tolerance Rally brought young people together in Abu Dhabi for a combined conference and team-building experience celebrating the UAE's cultural diversity and commitment to inclusion.

Evolution had two days to develop the concept and five days to produce the event. Within that compressed period, the team needed to create an experience that felt immediate, energetic and emotionally clear to a youth audience.

The central idea was collective action. A giant banner held across the participants turned unity from an event message into something the audience physically created together.

The Challenge

The short timeline required concept development, production planning, supplier mobilisation and live preparation to happen in rapid succession. The event also needed enough visual and emotional energy to connect with a passionate youth audience while ensuring the theme was expressed through meaningful connection rather than surface level decoration.

Conference content, team-building, live artists and music performances had to build towards a shared participatory moment, making programme rhythm as important as the physical environment.

The Solution

Evolution developed the giant banner as the rally's principal symbol. Its scale required coordinated handling across the audience, turning participants into active contributors and creating a visual expression of different people supporting one shared idea.

The wider environment combined conference and team-building requirements with live artists and music bands. Performances gave the programme momentum and emotional variation, helping the event move from discussion into celebration and collective action.

With only five days to deliver the experience, Evolution coordinated design development, supplier management and onsite execution through a focused production process. This ensured the creative intent was maintained while managing the practical requirements of a large-scale participatory event.

The final experience used scale, music and audience involvement to make the values of tolerance and inclusion visible rather than leaving them as statements on a stage.

Delivery Highlights

• Two-day concept period followed by a five-day production timeline.
• Combined conference and team-building experience for a youth audience.
• Giant shared banner as the principal symbol of unity and diversity.
• Live artists and music bands integrated into the programme.
• Audience participation coordinated around a collective visual moment.
• Full production management from concept through onsite delivery.

Outcome

The rally gave young participants a direct role in expressing the values at the centre of the event. The giant banner created a moment that depended on cooperation, while music and performance gave the programme the pace and emotion of a public celebration.

Tolerance was experienced through participation, not only discussed, giving the event a clear image and shared memory within a short delivery period.

Project Ecosystem

Client:

Crown Prince Court

Evolution Events: Led concept development, programme planning, artist and band coordination, supplier management, team-building activity and live delivery.

Evolution Scenic: Produced and integrated the giant banner and supporting event-environment elements.

Additional Project Support:

Evolution Furniture - Evolution  Technical

On 5 March 2024, the UAE welcomed the Emir of Kuwait with an official reception at Qasr Al Watan in Abu Dhabi. The ceremony used traditional performance, horses and camels to express the depth of the relationship between the two nations.

Evolution’s responsibility was concentrated behind the public view: a complete back-of-house build, stables, camel facilities, transport and show management supporting approximately 950 performers and 200 animals.

The project was therefore approached as an invisible operational city. Every holding area, movement route and show cue had to protect animal welfare and performer readiness while allowing the ceremonial welcome to appear composed, dignified and effortless.

The Challenge

A state reception leaves no room for operational uncertainty. Performers and animals needed to be assembled, screened, transported and released into a fixed ceremonial sequence, with movements coordinated around palace protocol and restricted access.

The compound at Emirates Palace also had to support rehearsals and live operation without allowing its scale to intrude on the official experience. Stables, camel facilities, transport routes, welfare areas and more than a kilometre of controlled fencing needed to function as one secure system.

The Solution

Evolution developed the back-of-house environment around the complete performer and animal journey. Dedicated stables, camel holding areas and operational compounds created clear separation between species, carers, performers and production teams while keeping each group close to its required release route.

Transport planning connected the Emirates Palace base with the ceremonial programme at Qasr Al Watan. Movement schedules, vehicle access, screening and holding times were coordinated against rehearsal and show cues rather than treated as separate logistical tasks.

Show management controlled line-ups, releases and transitions so the public ceremony could retain its visual rhythm. The operational plan also incorporated welfare, security and emergency access, ensuring that the scale behind the event remained protected from guest view.

By treating the compound, transport operation and show sequence as one programme, Evolution gave the ceremonial production a stable foundation without competing with the cultural and diplomatic meaning of the occasion.

Delivery Highlights

• Official Kuwait presidential reception at Qasr Al Watan on 5 March 2024.
• Full back-of-house build and operational compound at Emirates Palace.
• Support for approximately 950 performers and 200 horses and camels.
• Dedicated stables, camel facilities, holding areas and animal-welfare planning.
• Performer and animal transport between the operational base and ceremonial venue.
• More than one kilometre of controlled fencing supporting safe movement and separation.
• Live show management, line-up control and ceremonial sequencing.

Outcome

The reception was supported by an operational system large enough to manage hundreds of performers and animals, yet discreet enough to remain absent from the official guest experience.

That separation allowed the ceremony to communicate heritage, respect and bilateral friendship through a precisely timed cultural welcome, while the welfare, movement and readiness behind it remained fully controlled.

Project Ecosystem

Client:

Presidential Protocol and Strategic Narrative Authority

Evolution Events: Led back-of-house planning, animal and performer welfare, transport, screening, operational logistics, show management, protocol coordination and live delivery.

Site Infrastructure:

Evolution Site Services

Technical Production:

Evolution Technical

Additional Project Support:

Evolution Furniture - Evolution Scenic

In 2023, Evolution organised the official reception ceremony for the Republic of Korea’s state visit to the UAE at Qasr Al Watan. President Yoon Suk Yeol and the Korean delegation were welcomed by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan alongside UAE dignitaries and guests.

The ceremony needed to express diplomatic respect while using UAE culture and heritage as the principal language of welcome. Evolution’s role extended from the formal reception at Qasr Al Watan to a substantial operational compound at Emirates Palace supporting the animals and carers involved in the traditional parade.

The experience was built around cultural authenticity at ceremonial scale. Horses, camels, performers and official stakeholders were coordinated within a fixed sequence designed to strengthen the sense of occasion without exposing the logistics behind it.

The Challenge

The central horse-and-camel parade required accommodation and welfare infrastructure for up to 400 animals. Carers also needed dedicated tents and cabins close enough to support rehearsals and live operations while remaining separate from the official guest environment.

At Qasr Al Watan, cultural performances and ceremonial displays had to comply with strict protocol and security requirements. Guests needed to experience the reception as a precise diplomatic sequence, despite the scale of the animals, performers and back-of-house operation involved.

The Solution

Evolution designed and constructed a dedicated compound at Emirates Palace capable of housing up to 400 horses and camels. The layout supported animal movement, care and preparation for the traditional parade that formed the centrepiece of the welcome.

Large-scale tents and cabins provided accommodation and operational space for animal carers. This infrastructure allowed welfare and rehearsal requirements to remain close to the programme without intruding into the ceremonial presentation.

At Qasr Al Watan, Evolution coordinated the cultural performances and displays highlighting UAE heritage. The production and design teams aligned parade movement, guest arrival and official timing within the requirements of protocol and security.

The reception was managed as one connected state-visit operation, linking Emirates Palace back-of-house preparation with the highly controlled ceremony at the Presidential Palace.

Delivery Highlights

• Official reception ceremony for the South Korean state visit at Qasr Al Watan.
• More than 1,000 UAE dignitaries and guests attending the welcome.
• Traditional camel-and-horse parade as the ceremony centrepiece.
• Dedicated Emirates Palace compound for up to 400 animals.
• Large-scale tents and cabins supporting animal carers.
• Cultural performances and displays celebrating UAE heritage.
• Integrated protocol, security, logistics and ceremonial coordination.

Outcome

The state reception combined diplomatic precision with a powerful expression of UAE heritage. The parade and performances gave the welcome cultural depth, while the animal compound and carer facilities allowed the ceremonial elements to arrive fully prepared and controlled.

Guests experienced a confident national ceremony at Qasr Al Watan, with the extensive welfare, rehearsal and logistical systems remaining discreetly behind the official sequence.

Project Ecosystem

Client:

Presidential Protocol and Strategic Narrative Authority

Evolution Events: Led state-visit production, ceremonial planning, cultural programme coordination, protocol and security liaison, animal logistics, stakeholder management and live delivery.

Site Infrastructure:

Evolution Site Services

Technical Production:

Evolution Technical

Additional Project Support:

Evolution Furniture - Evolution Scenic