Domino Designs

Lily Hevesh started playing with dominoes when she was 9 years old. Today she is a professional domino artist. She builds spectacular displays for movies, TV shows, and popular events. The artist’s largest domino works take several minutes to fall. She helped set a Guinness World Record for the most dominoes toppled in a circular arrangement: 76,017!

When Hevesh begins developing a design, she researches images, words, colors, and patterns to include in her work. Then she arranges the dominoes into intricate structures, like the walls below or the spiral shape above. Trial and error are a big part of Hevesh’s working process. She makes test versions of each section in a design. Then she films them falling in slow motion. This helps her make precise corrections to her designs when they don’t function as she planned.

Hevesh is usually nervous before a final performance. “No matter how much I’ve planned, there are always things that surprise me,” she says. “Once the last domino has toppled, that’s when I can finally celebrate.”