We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jeff Cason a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jeff, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I saw Fantasmic! at Disneyland when I was 8 years old, and in that moment, I knew I wanted to create nighttime spectaculars when I grew up. The only problem was, I had no idea how to follow that path. I came to discover there was no university program or internship that would get me from here to there. I applied to Disney and Universal dozens of times after graduating college, to no avail.

So I pivoted, embarking on a long, winding career path through theatre, corporate trade shows, and entertainment technology ventures. Along the way I learned many of the disciplines that are essential for creating spectaculars: concept development, storywriting, lighting design, projection design, pyrotechnics, music production, just to name a few. And every few years I would try again to land a job with the theme parks, and would get rejected.

Finally in 2015, I learned that my hometown, the City of El Segundo, was going to be celebrating their centennial in a few years. I had a crazy idea… what if I successfully pitched the city on a Disney-style spectacular? With no prior experience—only a pitch deck and big talk—I sold the vision of a fireworks spectacular to the community.

The risk paid off. I had won my first major project! The only problem was… how would I actually pull off a spectacular of this scale? Across two years of planning, I leaned on every contact I had in the industry for help, challenged myself to quickly level up my abilities, and had many moments of learning to adapt to setbacks and near failures. There were moments just days before the event when equipment needed to be replaced and logistical problems threatened to derail the event. But finally in October 2017, we presented “Celebrate! A Fireworks Spectacular” to 10,000 guests—combining pyro, original music, narration, projection mapping, and lighting to tell the story of the city in a vivid way.

Today I run my own design firm, Jeff Cason Designs, creating spectaculars and immersive events for clients around the country. I get to do what eight year old Jeff dreamed about doing for a living. I owe it all to the risk I took almost a decade ago, and the drive to make the dream a reality by any means possible.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve spent nearly 20 years in the entertainment industry as a creative director and designer for live shows and immersive events. My career has included producing and directing musical theatre, designing trade shows and exhibits for Fortune 500 clients, and founding an entertainment technology venture that gamified the live events space by harnessing the power of guests’ mobile devices.

Today, I help clients celebrate their milestones in big ways—fireworks spectaculars, projection mapping onto buildings, light shows, and immersive exhibits. I love leaving guests with that “wow” experience at the end of the event—creating memories that they’ll never forget.

Our team at Jeff Cason Designs works with our clients to turn their stories into spectacular celebrations, from the first concept meeting to show day, with services that include: concept design, storywriting, music production, voice over and narration, animations & projection design, lighting design, pyrotechnics, drones, lasers, confetti, interactive technology, and special effects.

Some of our favorite projects include “Celebrate! A Fireworks Spectacular” where we told the story of the City of El Segundo to over 10,000 guests through a nighttime extravaganza, and featured IP from Mattel, the L.A. Kings, and Los Angeles Lakers. We also recently produced “Race City: The Origins Of Speed,” an immersive projection mapping exhibit that celebrated Roger Penske and Edsel Ford II, and immersed guests in the storied history of motorsports in North Carolina.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The life of an artist requires constant pivoting. So many times in my career I’ve had to give up a project, path, or goal because it wasn’t the right thing at the right time.

An example: I founded a summer theatre festival in El Segundo called Broadway In The Park. We ran the program for five years, producing fully-staged outdoor musicals for families. The program was well-loved in the community, and I loved working on it. But it required thousands of hours of volunteer work to pull it off each year. Eventually we realized it couldn’t scale to the point where it would be self sustaining and our team was burning out.

We finished out our final season on a high note and closed the program, not knowing what would come next. I didn’t realize at the time that the relationships I built during the run of that program would pave the way for my first fireworks spectacular, which would go on to launch my design career.

As artists, we never know where our projects will take us. But, in my experience, if we are nimble and willing to give up short term wins for long term vision, that effort will be rewarded.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

In my career journey, I didn’t have a clear path to success. I had to teach myself much of what I know, and create my own opportunities to produce my art. This style of “going solo” served me for a season and got me started on my journey.

However my vision quickly outgrew my ability to pull it off alone. I needed other people. At first I recruited others to help me, but ended up disempowering them by making all the decisions myself. I learned the hard way that I’d never be able to lead effectively if I kept running ahead of my team and leaving them behind.

Over the years I learned how to listen, equip, and empower others. I’ve grown to be much more collaborative—and enjoy co-creating with others so much more than I ever did operating as a one man band!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jeffcasondesigns.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeffcasondesigns/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreycason/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP5dXAxJXh4

Image Credits

All photos taken by me. Happy to provide photo descriptions on request. Two photos incorporate artworks by other artists:

“Get Lost” projection design by Jeff Cason, featuring mosaics by Brenda Pokorny (the photo of the flowers projected onto a glass storefront)
“Roots on Eucalyptus” projection design by Jeff Cason, featuring artwork by Damian Fulton (the photo of the woman with the surfboard)