Brand New Afterparty
A "Friday the 13th"-themed photo booth was set up by our After-Party sponsor, Public Society, featuring gory tools of the trade and scary props like the spinning beachball and Photoshop quitting pop-up window. These are some of the goriest pics.

Services
Art Direction, Event Production, Graphic Design, Vendor Coordination, Photobooth Setup & Event Staffing

Props were printed, mounted on foam core, cut and painted. We hosted 100+ guests for 3 hours.

We Have Severance at Home
For the long awaited season 2 of the Apple TV’s show Severance, I couldn’t sit idly in my fandom– from the frenetic social media buzz to seeing the set recreation firsthand during the Grand Central marketing stunt, the anticipation for the new season was palpable. While watching the first episode with a friend, I started to imagine how fun, surreal and satisfying it would be to be inside the retrofuturist world of Severance. By the time the credits rolled, I had decided to throw a finale watch party right in my living room.The finale was set to air March 21, 2025—six weeks away. I had a hard deadline, a budget of $300, extensive design and production experience and a reputation for throwing great events. It was more than enough to say “We have Severance at home.”

Services
Experiential design, Art Direction, Event Production, Graphic Design, Prop Production, Vendor Coordination, Project Management

The Start
I began by creating a production plan for the physical props, anticipating they would require the most steps to produce. Notebook and pen in hand, I rewatched season 1–jotting down items I loved that would make the mysterious fictional corporation of Lumon Industries feel real. I wanted to have the most recognizable items from the first season like Ricken’s The You You Are book alongside niche season 2 items, such as the goat eye charts. This curated mix ensured a truly immersive experience while showing my obsessive attention to detail.

Simultaneously, I mapped out the spatial layout of my living to transform it into the main set, the severed floor of Severance. This meant stripping the room of all art, decoration and color so it would be a completely blank canvas. Also I programmed the lighting, selected music and curated background visuals to create the sterile, cult like corporate atmosphere that defines Lumon Industries.

While rewatching season 1, I came up with several ideas for what activities we could do ahead of the screening of the finale. Most of these activities required not only props, but the coordination of specific characters to lead them so I prepared shorts scripts. For instance, I took on the role of Ms. Casey who conducted custom wellness sessions for each guest. in the innie’s wellness sessions. Acting as the counselor, I read off specific, comforting facts about each guest's "outie." To prepare for this, I quietly spent the weeks leading up to the party taking notes on guests–observing hyper-specific habits, quirks, and preferences to make each session feel as authentic, fun, and as delightfully surprising as possible.

Production Logistics
Early on, I set up a master operational spreadsheet to track everything end-to-end: I ranked items by priority, embedded sourcing links for vendors, monitored costs against my tight $300 budget, set quantities and tracked each the production statuses—including the tasks I delegated to friends who helped execute key pieces. Seeing the tangible progress in the spreadsheet kept the workflow manageable, even if it was slightly crazy for one person.



The production was a particularly challenging undertaking because Severance is known for its impeccable attention to detail. The precision in every aesthetic detail creates the unnerving atmosphere that is so prominent in the show. That meant making low-fidelity replicas or interpretations wouldn’t work and meticulous sourcing would make a big impact. Operating with a small budget and limited timeframe meant I had to prioritize strategically to get the most impact out of what I made.



High-priority items included character-defining assets like custom badges and pins, alongside the most recognizable environmental elements that anchor the world of Lumon: the green floor, the MDR terminal, and the food. Secondary items were props designated for planned activities, such as Miss Huang’s red ball and the board speaker.

World Building Through Design
It was of utmost importance to replicate the design language of Lumon because the corporation acts as a dominating character of the show–a faceless villain–mysterious and unsettling.

The graphic style of Lumon draws heavily from mid-century bureaucratic documents and 1970s pharmaceutical branding. I tracked down and utilized the show's exact typefaces to design the custom materials: Manifold Extended CF for the wall signage, Forma DJR for the invite and music menu and Input sans for the iconic Hang in There! poster. Forma DJR, which is used on all internal documents, looks almost friendly, but in context feels soulless and passive aggressive, creating the perfect atmosphere of corporate oppression.

To replicate the printed collateral, I first digitized the core Lumon brand system. I vectorized the primary Lumon globe logo and the teardrop icon, matched the exact color codes, and organized the typography into a brand asset library to maintain visual consistency across multiple props and touchpoints.

Props
Using this asset library I created, I started designing and producing all the print materials in my home design studio. Things quickly came to life like the laminated green music menu that Helly uses to select “defiant jazz” for the party in season 1, room signs set in the futuristic Manifold font throughout the set of the severed floor, the missing Miss Casey flyers and the mysterious goat eye charts. For large items and high fidelity prints such as Rickon’s book and Dylan’s Hang in There! poster, I had them professionally printed.

Ricken’s book, The You You Are was the most challenging, tedious, and rewarding item to create. It is an absurd, overly profound self help book, written by the main character’s self absorbed brother in law. In the show, viewers only see the front cover so I had the creative freedom of making the back and two inside jackets to make the prop come to life. Using an existing red hardback book as a base, I measured and mapped out the dimensions so the new custom jacket would fit perfectly. Apple TV’s marketing team had previously released a brief digital excerpt, which gave me a great deal of excellent source material to pull from and expand upon. I matched every typeface and drop shadow, wrote a satirical author bio and note, and pulled reviews from real fans on Apple Books. Once professionally printed, I hand-cut, scored, and wrapped the jacket at home.

To stretch the budget, reduce unused material and get the exact color matches, I created the Lumon staff ID badges by hand. I repurposed old cards using spray paint and acrylics, and sourced paracord in the exact shades of Macrodata Refinement blue and Optics & Design green. Using a standard hole punch, sculpted silver wire, and spare keyrings, I assembled the lanyards one by one.

I wanted attendees to leave with something as well, so as a party favor, everyone received a Lumon blue balloon featuring their own faces, inspired by the ones Mark S. receives from Mr. Milchick. Did you know you could apply temporary tattoos on latex balloons? I prototyped the guest portraits at various scales and contrasts to ensure clarity, sourced the precise corporate blue balloons, located a cost-effective local helium supplier, and hand-applied the graphics. They were a huge hit!

For the floor treatment I enlisted the help of my friend who suggested utilizing seamless green-screen photography backdrops. Coincidentally, the chroma-key green was an exact match with the color of the carpet from Severance's MDR set! I sourced the perfect dimensions for just $35. This required traveling to B&H on 9th Ave and 34th and then maneuvering a 8ft tube through the subway during rush hour traffic back to my home near Prospect Park. It was entirely worth the effort—the results speak for itself.

[video here]

Experience Design
The actual event needed to feel incredibly fun and immersive–a tribute to the quality and brilliance of the show. I kicked things off by sending out digital invitations that were designed to look like Lumon Industries paperwork. I composed a severe sounding message to send alongside it.


In an authoritative corporate tone, it read:

Corporate Mandate: Severance Season 2 Finale Viewing

Dear Valued Team Member,

Per corporate mandate, you are hereby summoned to an after-hours engagement at [REDACTED] on March 21 at 6 PM for an authorized screening of the Severance Season 2 finale. Approved provisions (food & beverages) will be available, and proper attire (costumes) is compulsory. Nonattendance is, of course, a personal choice–one that will be documented accordingly.

With authorized enthusiasm,

Management 

When guests RSVP’d, I replied as Lumon, bureaucratic and cold.

Many of the guests got the message and played along in the days leading up to the event, building anticipation and mystery.

On the night of the finale, guests arrived and looked incredible–in large part because what started as a casual watch party quickly became a casting call. Though it was a big ask for guests to come dressed in cosplay as the characters, especially for those who didn’t know other people, it allowed for an easier icebreaker with strangers and a more immersive experience.


The night’s itinerary was full: we recreated the ball game led by Miss Huang, toasted over “reintegration shots” made of ginger juice and rum served by the character Reghabi, conducted wellness sessions with Miss Casey. We even had call with the board to conclude the evening.




Throughout the night, guests interacted with a physical MDR desk terminal I set up, complete with a custom file-refining game where they could capture numbers that felt scary. Food was inspired directly from the show: we had an egg bar, carved melon balls and a late-night waffle party served by Mr. Milchick himself.

The Outcomes
Following the event, I posted videos to document the work I did and the party itself. One of the videos generated over 30K views and caught the attention and praise of Severance cast members.


Additionally, Eteng Ettah, a guest at the party, invited me to speak as a guest on the Severance episode of her award winning TV podcast Consider This For Comfort which became the podcast’s most-listened-to episode to date.



Bonus Track
As if creating 40+ items for the event wasn’t enough, I simultaneously launched an Etsy shop where I listed my designs as digital downloads so that other fans hosting their own Severance parties could use and enjoy them. This side project took on its own life as the season progressed, ultimately generating enough revenue to entirely recoup my original production budget. As a result of the shop, the video and sharing my work on this event, I have since received inbound client requests to license my design work and to produce custom props for  independent projects.

Praise Kier!