LEWISTON – Jake Kavanagh wasn’t at an inaugural ball Tuesday night, but his talent was.

Since September, he’s been working as a freelance designer on several high-profile events, in addition to working his full-time design job. One of those events was helping to design Tuesday’s premiere inaugural ball, the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington.

“There have been a lot of very, very late nights,” he said. “But every bit of it, everything seen on camera, I drew.”

Kavanagh said he worked with computer-aided drafting and design software to create three dimensional images of sketches for the ball.

The designs have been revised 16 times, which is a lot considering he’s only been involved with the project since December, Kavanagh said.

“It’s amazing how this stuff happens, the speed of it all,” he said.

Kavanagh, who has lived in Lewiston with his wife, Amy, for about six years, said he feels very lucky to have worked with the project.

“It’s just an incredible feeling to know I’m involved in the process,” he said. “It’s a huge moment in time. To know I was involved at this level is fantastic.”

That he is involved at all is a strong tribute to his design skills and ability to network.

Kavanagh said it all began when the Tennessee-based company he works for out of his home was asked by the Maine Public Broadcasting Network to design a stage for a political debate. It was to be modeled after a stage at the Democratic National Convention. In researching the job, Kavanagh e-mailed the designer of the convention event. He ended his message by complimenting the work and offering a helping hand in the future.

After exchanging a few e-mails with Bruce Rogers of Tribe Inc., a Los Angeles-based design firm, Kavanagh again stressed his interest in helping out.

“I wrote, ‘I don’t want to mow the lawn this weekend, please send me something,'” Kavanagh said. Rogers wrote back with two pages of notes for a design project for the NHL All-Star game and said, “By the way, I have to bring this to the client on Monday,” according to Kavanagh.

With the pressure on, Kavanagh was able to produce. It must have impressed Rogers, who continued to enlist Kavanagh for more projects.

Kavanagh said his role is one of technical design, which involves making sure a design can be successfully translated to full size.

“If you do a sketch, even a beautiful one, you can cheat on the scale of stuff,” he said. “The computer images help to see the true scale of a piece. For example, I had to design a 13-and-a-half-foot replica of the Stanley Cup, which is hard to understand relative to a stage.”

Kavanagh also helped out revising the set design for Carrie Underwood’s People’s Choice Awards performance and is working on designing the set for Bruce Springsteen’s upcoming Super Bowl performance.

But the highest profile project has been for the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball, which was telecast live during prime time on Tuesday.

“There were a lot of specific requirements, taking into account the physical space, security and the number of performers,” Kavanagh said.

He said the design for the event was guided by then-President-elect Barack Obama’s desire to have everyone feel involved, especially with the performances.

“It does feel intimate, even though if you were to put this set in the Boston Garden, for example, it would take up the whole floor,” he said.

He also helped design the stage, which featured 50 lit stars and is where the Obamas had their first dance as the first couple.

Kavanagh, who is in Montreal to oversee set production for the NHL All-Star event this weekend, said his only regret is that he is missing out on seeing the inaugural events.

“I wish I could be in front of a television,” he said. “But I feel very lucky, very blessed.”