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| Photo courtesy of LCD Lite Concept Design |
Where there are events, let there be light–brilliant colours and effects that transform a room at the flip of a switch. An integral element of event décor, lighting adds to, and supports, the room's ambient look and theme pulling it altogether for wow power.
Here are some quick easy tips for working a little (or a lot of) lighting magic:
- Walls are your blank canvas. For drama, position up lighting to pull in architectural features such as columns.
- Don't stop at the wall, use the ceiling too for colour washes to help totally envelop the room with an ambient surrounding.
- Pin lighting on tables and key décor elements looks very smart.
- Extend lighting to the outside of the venue. After all, the entrance exterior is the first thing guests see.
- Project gobos on walls and ceilings to create logos, themes, or special effects such as water or fire.
- LED lighting is still working out the kinks in the brightness (requires double the fixtures to obtain typical light wattage) and budget departments (they are still quite pricey). However, on the plus side, they don't require a lot of power, which is important to some venues, and they are a dream for lighting programmers to work with.
- Where candles are prohibited or risky to use, opt for LED votive lights and lanterns.
- Laser lighting lends a great futuristic touch.
- Fabrics are the perfect décor partner to lighting by adding backdrop textures and layering dimensionality. Cyc drape works best for projecting images. Lycra, Spandex, velvet, crushed fabrics, organza, gabardine and sharks tooth scrimming are great to work with.
- Lighting repels nicely off bright fabrics such as white and ivory. Dark colours such as red or blue require white, bright red or blue gels if you want to show the natural colour of the draping.
- Fiber optic drapes and the new LED soft drape panels are very cool.
- Digital lighting is the way of the future. Picture walking into a room and all four walls have realistic mountainscape images projected onto them. Wicked! However, it is costly since all walls need to be covered with white fabric and, depending on room size, you need at least 8 x 5,000 lumen projectors. And, of course, you need the graphics or multi-media artist to create the image. No problem for big budgets!
With input and thanks to
Steve Sampaio of LCD Lite Concept Design. www.lcdfx.com
