Lunar New Year at Ameristar Black Hawk

Ameristar's Black Hawk property brought in the Lunar New Year with a bilingual celebration, Chúc Mừng Năm Mới alongside its Chinese counterpart, spanning the casino floor, lobby and reception. Lively Productions dressed the property with a rearing gold horse centerpiece, a wall-mounted illuminated horse-head medallion, and lanterns and banners throughout.

MEDALLION DESIGN

Designed the horse-head logo with gold background and integrated LED lighting

PRINT + FABRICATION

Prepped artwork and coordinated print production for the medallion panel

ON-SITE BUILD

Built and installed the medallion on the stone mantel above the lobby fireplace

PLANTER BRANDING

Designed the patterns, logos, and "Happy Lunar New Year" graphics on the statue planter boxes

LOBBY BANNERS

Designed the bilingual hanging banners throughout reception

BRAND LOCKUP

Applied a consistent Lunar New Year mark across every graphic element

The lanterns and the gold horse statue itself were part of the broader décor package but not designed by me. The pieces above are my scope on this project.

The horse-head medallion

From paint booth to a lit centerpiece above the lobby fireplace

Lit detail

Paint process

Ready to install

Installing the panel on the stone mantel with a lift

On-site install

Panel staged as a standalone display piece

Staged piece

Statue planter branding

Patterns, lockups, and Lunar New Year graphics on the horse statue bases

Gold horse statue with branded planter base, wide view

Full display

Graphic detail

Matching pair of statue planters flanking the entrance

Lobby dressing

The banners and window panels

Bilingual "Happy Lunar New Year" banners carried the same brand mark into the reception hallway, alongside the lantern displays. In the background, you can see custom cut window panels with the horse logo on the left and right, as well as the Happy New Year Logo in the Center. Those served as a backdrop for the check in desk.

Close detail of the bilingual Happy Lunar New Year banner

Banner detail

Reception hallway

2026

the Year of the Horse, the theme that shaped the medallion, statue and banner artwork throughout the property

Casino properties run on volume and turnaround. This needed to read clearly from across a busy floor while still holding up in the close-up photos guests would take at the display. The gold-on-cream medallion with LED edge lighting was built to do both: legible silhouette from a distance, detail and warmth up close.

It also meant working inside someone else's décor plan, since the statue and lanterns were sourced separately, and making sure everything I designed felt like part of one property-wide moment rather than an add-on.