// 04  Installations

Same crew.
Different audience.

Pop-ups. Retail activations. Photo studios. Brand experiences. Theatre. The skills that build a believable diner build a believable storefront — and our catalog of reused pieces makes them faster, cheaper, and infinitely greener.

RETAIL POP-UP

Brand for a week.

Boutiques, launches, takeovers. Built off-site, installed overnight, struck same night.

EXPERIENTIAL

A space worth queuing for.

Multi-room walk-throughs, immersive zones, photo moments. Dressed by a film crew, not a fabrication shop.

PHOTO STUDIO

A set that travels.

Modular vignettes for fashion, lookbook, content. Built once, restruck weekly, lives in the catalog.

EVENT / THEATRE

Stagecraft, off-stage.

Award nights, conferences, theatrical runs. Tour-ready builds that pack flat and travel.

// Why install with us

Three things you don't get
from a normal fab shop.

01

A 800-piece head start.

Half your install probably already exists in our catalog. We'll show you before we quote you new.

02

Crew that knows lenses.

Every surface gets film-set finishing standards — because tomorrow's content shoots in your space too.

03

A take-back contract.

When the install ends, we collect. Your activation doesn't become someone else's landfill problem.

// End to end

Concept to strike, one team.

01

Concept

Translate the brand brief into spatial narrative. Mood, lighting, flow, photo moments.

02

Design + drawings

3D renders, fabrication-ready drawings, material spec, lighting plot.

03

Build

Off-site at DC's build floor. Reused-first sourcing. You see daily progress photos.

04

Install

Overnight load-in to your venue, on-site finishing, lighting tune, snag list cleared by doors-open.

05

Strike + recover

Same crew comes back at the end. Pieces flow into our catalog. Sustainability report follows.

// Case study

Heritage fashion pop-up

Toronto · 14-day run · 2,400 sq ft retail takeover

QUEEN ST RETAIL

// The brief

Take over a vacant 2,400 sq ft Queen West retail space for two weeks. Four narrative "rooms" tied to the season's collection. Has to be Instagrammable, has to handle 300+ daily visitors, and has to leave the storefront in better shape than we found it.

// What we did

  • Full design package in 6 days
  • Modular flats so 4 rooms ship flat, install in one night
  • Sourced 80% of dec from catalog (mid-century furniture, brass fixtures)
  • Custom neon for the hero photo wall
  • Built-in lighting (no rental gear) to keep the on-site footprint minimal

Build days

8

Install + strike

3 nights

Reused

82%

Visitors / day avg

340

"Most build crews disappear once the doors open. DC walked through every day for the first week. When something cracked, they fixed it before the brand even noticed." — Brand Director

// Recent installations

Built. Installed. Recovered.

FASHION POP-UP
EXHIBITION FOYER
LAUNCH PARTY
RETAIL TAKEOVER
PHOTO STUDIO ROTATION
CONFERENCE STAGE

// Brief us

Tell us what you're activating.

// FAQ

Brand-side questions.

How fast can you turn around an install? +

Concept-to-doors-open in as little as 3 weeks for retail/pop-up scale, depending on what's in the catalog. Larger immersive activations want 6+ weeks. We've gone faster — at premium — but we won't say yes to a deadline we can't actually hit.

What does an install cost? +

Retail pop-ups typically $35k–$120k all-in (design + build + install + strike + take-back). Experiential at brand scale runs $150k–$500k+. The catalog brings the bottom of those ranges down — half your inventory is probably already on our shelves.

Where do you install? +

Greater Toronto Area is home turf. Anywhere in Ontario, no hesitation. Cross-Canada possible — we've trucked installs to Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver. Travel + accommodation billed at cost, transparent in the quote.

Can you work with our agency / our designer? +

Yes — we frequently build to other people's design. Your designer hands us specs, we hand back fabrication drawings + green-spec quote, you approve, we build. Our drafting team is fluent in Vectorworks and AutoCAD; we accept SketchUp / Rhino / hand-drawings too.

Sustainability proof we can put in the campaign? +

Yes — every install ships with a sustainability report you can include in the brand's PR or impact reporting. Quantified diversion (kg + CO₂e) backed by item-level manifest. Not vibes — audit-grade math your sustainability team can defend.

What happens to the install when the run ends? +

Take-back is built into every quote. We strike, we truck, we route every piece — most back to our catalog (with your brand credited on the provenance), some to recycling, almost nothing to landfill. You get a final report.