Q. Where do you find inspiration?
A. For us, design is a continuous process from one installation to the next. A completed project provides us with the foundation on which we build the next one.
Q. How did this design concept come to you?
A. Can we mention Justin Timberlake's seminal video without getting sued? If so, we are grateful for this opportunity to pay homage to a talented designer. But as always, inspiration is just a starting point. A lot of work went into designing a room from scratch, trying to strike the right balance between proportion and pixel density. I think this much we've achieved: the 'Light Box' just feels right and is set to become a classic. Another acknowledgement must certainly be for Craig Elder, the owner of Fire. He is a visionary in the world of nightclubs, and no one I know quite matches his appetite for new effects.
Q. What was a critical component in making your design a success?
A. We were on a very tight deadline and were looking at off the shelf LED panels that would fit the bill, but as we couldn't find anything that we liked or that was affordable, we decided to build our own panels. The effect we wanted to create was an immense grid with LED nodes acting as pixels, so that we could program our LED installation with a graphics generator and a media server.
When we came across the iColor® Flex SL strands, we immediately realised that we were looking at the right product. The colours generated were of an exceptional quality, the shape of the nodes were simple and elegant, inspiring us to produce a very pure and refined look. Now, you can stand in the middle of the room all LED's turned off and appreciate the 15,000 ‘white dots’ on a black background, as you would a painting or a sculpture. The practical qualities of the product were equally attractive; it was already assembled in long strings and the problem of addressing each node individually had already been resolved. Without it, we would have struggled to realize our design and the 'Light Box' would have looked very different. Now, you can stand in the middle of the room with all LEDs turned off and appreciate the 15,000 'white dots' on a black background, as you would a painting or a sculpture.
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Q. What are key factors to consider when designing with LEDs?
A. The most important factor for me is what you see when you stare directly into an LED fixture. The big draw back with most LED products is actually noticing individual RGB LEDs instead of their intended effect. In an environment where materials and colour schemes have been very carefully picked out, these unwanted colour effects can be very distracting. We take great care in picking products that have design flair.
Q. So what does the future holds for the lighting designer?
A. When I first started in this industry, the great majority of people were very aware of music, but lighting seemed an almost subliminal art form. Suddenly everyone is falling in love with light, its potential and truly amazing qualities. It is very gratifying to have been part of this process, and the future looks bright!
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Photo Credit: Gordon Haslett, Halo Lighting
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Q. Are there any trends in London we should keep an eye on?
A. With the introduction of 24-hour licenses for bars and clubs last year, London's nightclubs now feel the pressure from small intimate style bars. These bars provide the same entertainment that nightclubs do, but are cheaper and come with a personal touch. This is forcing nightclubs to rethink their role within the entertainment industry and this will eventually lead to the next phase of clubbing entertainment. Quite what this is going to be is anybody's guess.
I would personally like the visual content of night entertainment to match its audio equivalent and for clubbers to appreciate the input of VJs and visual artists just as much as they do DJs at present. This is certainly what Fire has done in a time of uncertainty for our industry. The Light Box is a bold statement from a vibrant club, saying loudly and clearly: we are the best there is in night entertainment and no one matches us when it comes to sheer hedonistic bliss.
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