Two Decades of Making Together. Big Image’s collaboration with the German stage designer Stefan Rieckhoff began over twenty years ago, with a printed cyclorama for The Bartered Bride at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau. Since then, the partnership has grown steadily—built on mutual trust, shared creative values, and the understanding that every project brings new challenges. What started as a single commission has evolved into a recurring collaboration.
The challenges of theatre production have shifted over the years. Today, it's often not budgets but the lack of time and space in in-house workshops that determine what is possible. Traditional painted backdrops require both. Printing, by contrast, offers a practical alternative, especially when schedules are tight or designs call for repeated patterns, photorealism, or transparent materials.
For Stefan, the value of Big Image lies in more than the final result. It’s the reliability, the consistency, and the shared attention to detail. It’s knowing that materials will arrive on time, and that every print will be treated with the same artistic sensitivity as a hand-painted backdrop.
In the staging of Der Rosenkavalier, Stefan faced the task of translating emotional tone into visual space. The first act needed to feel light and airy, almost ephemeral. It became a solution where modern technology met the tactility of textile: an AI-enhanced photorealistic image in soft pastels printed on gobelin tulle. This transparent material allowed light to pass through gently, while maintaining the clarity and nuance of the printed design.
Behind the printed tulle, a film projection added further depth. Rear-projected imagery shimmered through the surface, creating a layered effect that would have posed a major challenge for scenic painting. It was a delicate balance between visibility and translucency.
If Act I was about delicacy, Act III brought an entirely different mood. Here, a strange, dreamlike fairground needed to appear on stage almost out of nowhere, brought in piece by piece by the performers themselves. The challenge was to create large, sculptural forms—horses, carousels, a clown—that were as visually striking as they were light and portable.
Big Image printed detailed designs on ultra-thin fabric, which was then carefully stretched over hand-cut wooden frames. The precision required was immense: decorators had to trace the prints, cut the supporting structures, and apply the material with exact alignment. Once lit from within or behind, these two-dimensional forms came alive, offering the illusion of depth and structure. Transparency was key—not just for aesthetics, but for the lighting design, which depended on the material behaving predictably under stage lights.
Throughout the process, Stefan remained closely involved. In earlier years, he often visited the studio in person to sit alongside the production manager and help shape the work as it came to life. While digital tools now allow much of that to happen online, the spirit of collaboration remains unchanged.
From a production standpoint, the process ran smoothly. The delivery schedule held, the fittings matched, and the final elements were installed on time. The result thrilled everyone involved — especially because the method was so simple and the effect so unexpectedly powerful.
For Stefan, printing is not a shortcut. It is a way to do things differently, when time or material makes traditional methods impractical. It is a way to think ahead, plan smarter, and still hold on to the values of the theatre.
From bold ideas to finished reality, we make the extraordinary possible.
