Domino Designer

Creating a giant, intricate domino display takes a lot of planning. To begin, Hevesh thinks about the purpose of the design. She brainstorms images or words to use.

Next, Hevesh plans out how she wants to arrange the dominoes. She might make a grid of dominoes that form pictures when they fall. Or she could build stacked domino walls. She could also make 3-D structures like domino towers or pyramids.

Then Hevesh calculates how many dominoes of each color she’ll need. Some creations require tens of thousands of dominoes. Instead of counting them by hand, she weighs them. She uses the total weight in an equation to calculate whether she has enough of each color.

Hevesh also has to consider whether the floor she will build on is smooth or rough. “Plastic dominoes on a polished floor can be very slippery. They’re going to fall differently than wooden dominoes on a rougher surface,” says Hevesh.

To address these differences, Hevesh tests each section of a display. She films the tests in slow motion. This allows her to make precise corrections to fix errors. When each section works perfectly, she puts them all together.

Creating a giant, complicated domino display takes a lot of planning. First, Hevesh thinks about the purpose of the design. She brainstorms images or words to use.

Next, Hevesh plans how to arrange the dominoes. She might make a grid of dominoes. The grids form pictures when they fall. Or she could build stacked domino walls. She could also make 3-D structures like domino towers or pyramids. 

Then Hevesh calculates how many dominoes of each color she’ll need. Some creations require tens of thousands of dominoes. She doesn’t count them by hand. Instead, she weighs them. She uses an equation to calculate whether she has enough of each color.      

Hevesh also considers the type of floor she’s building on. Plastic dominoes are slippery on smooth floors. Wooden dominoes fall differently on rougher surfaces.

To address these differences, Hevesh tests each section of a display. She films the tests in slow motion. This allows her to make precise corrections to fix errors. When each section works perfectly, she puts them all together.

It can take Hevesh many hours to plan and complete a single project. For example, her design for Katy Perry took nine hours. Other projects have taken days.

While she builds the designs, Hevesh leaves a few dominoes out here and there. These are called safety gaps. That way if she accidentally knocks something over, the mistake doesn’t bring the whole thing crashing down.

“I’m pretty good at preventing big accidental topples, but small ones happen in just about every project,” says Hevesh.

When it’s time for the official run, Hevesh is usually a bit nervous. “No matter how much I’ve planned, there are always little things that surprise me,” she says. “I worry constantly that something will go wrong. Once the last domino has toppled, that’s when I can finally celebrate and sigh in relief.”

It can take Hevesh many hours to complete a single project. For example, her design for Katy Perry took nine hours. Other projects have taken days.

While she builds the designs, Hevesh leaves a few dominoes out here and there. These are called safety gaps. They protect the design if she accidentally knocks something over. The mistake doesn’t bring the whole thing crashing down. 

“I’m pretty good at preventing big accidental topples,” says Hevesh. “But small ones happen in just about every project.”

When it’s time for the official run, Hevesh is usually a bit nervous. No matter how much she plans, there’s always little surprises. “I worry constantly that something will go wrong. Once the last domino has toppled, that’s when I can finally celebrate and sigh in relief.”