The nearest airport is located in Louisville almost 90 miles away. No professional sports team is closer than 100 miles to the north in Indianapolis. If you get the feeling that French Lick, Indiana (pop. 1769) is a remote small town, you’re absolutely right. Yet, celebrities as diverse as Willie Nelson, Joan Jett, Styx and […]
At the end of our discussions with lighting designers, we often ask them how they would like to be remembered. When we posed that question to this French-born designer, she deadpanned “as an uncompromising artistic LD,” before breaking out with a wink and a smile, to talk about being fun-loving and tasteful. In truth, Pedron […]
Every evening visitors flock to the Singapore Zoo. They aren’t coming to see the facility’s animals, who by then have been safely tucked away in their sleeping quarters. The attraction that draws them is a winding one-kilometer magical path that immerses the senses with the sights and sounds of simulated rainforest landscapes, complete with a […]
As a lighting designer who’s done WYSIWYG modeling and video mapping for major global events like the Formula 1 Grand Prix Concert in Abu Dhabi, Luke Bonner is accustomed to rolling out massive levels of technology. When it comes to theatrical productions, however, Bonner takes a step back, preferring to minimize virtual set technologies like […]
A little over three years ago, Glenn Ottenbacher was subcontracted to help with the lighting and sound installation at a Milwaukee venue that wanted to up its live music game. When the project was over, a new chapter began for the affable Wisconsin native, when the club owner asked him to run the new lighting […]
When Theater De Blauwe Kei moved into a new 650-seat facility recently, it also set a new standard for entertainment technology in the Netherlands by becoming the first 100% LED theater in its country. Universally regarded as one of the most significant theaters in the Netherlands, it accomplished this impressive feat with an all-CHAUVET Professional […]
Like two chemical elements, scenic and lighting design exert a powerful pull on one another. As each draws the other closer, it upends the status quo for both, forcing them to move in new directions together. It is out of this creative cauldron that a more complete and balanced design emerges. Among the best at […]
“And when you wake, the morning covers you with light… and it makes you feel alright.” So goes one of the more memorable lines from Counting Crows’ 2002 hit “Hard Candy.” Covering the iconic multi-platinum rock band in light has been a passion for this New Jersey-born designer for 18 years – and like the […]
Every concert stage can be looked at as a canvas, an untouched space that is transformed with vivid colors and myriad patterns by a designer working to support a client’s music. For Spencer Lavoie, this canvas becomes far larger when lighting festivals. Rather than supporting one band on a single stage, the festival designer must […]
Floating gracefully across the stage, at times in formal attire that was as crisp and precise as their pivot turns and pirouettes, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Peta Murgatroyd, and Valentin Chmerkovskiy epitomized the elegance of ballroom dancing on their 2018 Confidential Tour. Beyond this rarified display of style, however, the trio, who are famous for their roles […]
His work for MTV, CNN, MSNBC and other networks is seen by millions, but when he designs, Mike Grabowski has a smaller audience in mind: the cameras in the broadcast studio. Senior Designer for The Lighting Design Group, Grabowski begins his design process by thinking of how his work will look on camera. Collaborating closely […]
Sometimes when interviewing designers for this column, we ask them to describe the most important personality traits needed to succeed in this industry. We never posed that question to this legendary New York designer and principal of Lightswitch during our talk with him, but if we had, we get the feeling that the word “collaboration” […]