Thomas Giegerich from bold DESIGN took responsibility to create an experience for visitors to the massive EK Lights booth at GET SHOW 2019. Thomas was also responsible for the light and architectural design for the booth in the previous edition.

Thomas and his brother are stalwarts in the industry. They started their company bright! in 2004 as an owner operated business. Five years ago, the bright! team added to their portfolio by teaming up with Jerry Appelt Lichtdesign to create bold DESIGN; a Germany based, interdisciplinary design studio for live events, television and concerts.

The four founding members have been working on shows like Eurovision Song Contest, Saudi Arabia National Day, Rock in Rio, the Dubai New Years Event celebration on the Burj Khalifa, the inauguration ceremony of the new Hamburg concert house ”Elbphilharmonie” and the Memory of Yan’an and have now joined forces in bold DESIGN.

Thomas’ interaction with EK Lights happened a couple of years back at the PL+S Shanghai exhibition. His conversations with Jason Echols of EK Lights built a bond between them, where then Jason invited Thomas to design the booth for EK Lights last year. This year saw the extension of that relationship.

The EK Lights booth at this year’s GET Show was an impressive 576sqm featuring a runway, a bar and lounge area for discussions.

ETA asked Thomas about the entire booth concept and this is what he had to say.

“The entire concept is based on the philosophy of Form Follows Function. The initial architectural inspiration for the booth is a fashion show combined with a high class night club feeling. So we started to design with the runway being our center line. Not only visually, but also technically.

All the visible lighting fixtures are symmetrical, and others that are hidden are meant to be as such but still, get the job done.

We were precise as to what we wanted to achieve, and so some lights are not switched on always as it will not add any value. We used the different fixtures according to the ambience we wanted to create at a particular time.

As mentioned there is a little bit of nightclub inspiration, and at the same time, there is the back lounge for talking. As you can see, we have a DJ Booth, and everything we did is symmetrical to the DJ Booth. By placing the DJ Booth at the end of the front corner and the Runway in an L-shape, we created a depth to the booth.

A sort of anticipation for the visitors as to who is coming down the Runway next.

There are layers of design within the space. It is not just the visual design but how all the elements come together and create a seamless experience for the visitors.

For the lounge area, we created the wall element by placing different shapes on the wall. Specific lighting fixtures project on the shapes whereby it is like a picture but a moving picture.”

The EK booth had scheduled shows throughout the exhibition hours. Singers, as well as models, used the Runway. During the shows, the different EK Light fixtures came to life to create a visual sensation.

“Every part of the show we focused on the different light aspects. We had fast hard movements for an energetic feel, gobos for soothing movements, as well as strobes, wash and sharp lights to create a different expression.”

The show featured 14 different EK lighting fixture models from Spots, Effects, Wash, Blinders, Beams, Fresnels and Profiles.

“There were many considerations for the design. Other than what I have mentioned, we also had to ensure that there was contrast. For example, we had to ensure piano finish materials in some spaces for reflection and matt in other spaces. We also ensured that the lounge chairs were in white so that they too can play a part in the overall light effects. We also had to ensure the branding of the whole booth and not just the logo.”

At the end, our job is to make the EK products look perfect in their special use case, and all the entertainment elements are meant to enhance the different features of the lighting fixtures. When the show is not on, we used more subtle colours and effects that still attracted the attention of delegates passing by.”

A total of nearly 550 fixtures were used throughout the booth. Taking prime spots at the Runway and the flanks were 16 units of K1 1kW LED Profile, 55 units of 500W LED Profile with the K2 HR put to work to light the runway models, 72 units of R2 RGBW LED Beam/Wash/FX, 185 units of R3 RGBW LED Beam/Wash, 57 units of the Collider FC pixel-mappable RGBW strobe (watch) and 44 units of ePar Infiniti RGBW tunable white COB PAR.

The Collider performed double-duty, providing deep colour washes above the Runway and pixel-mapped effects on the lighting matrix walls that framed the massive booth.

The lounge area featured 29 units of ePar Ultra UV COB PAR, six units of Color Ranger Q48 RGBW wash and three units of Color Ranger Q27 RGBW wash. The bar featured five units of Houselight FC RGBAL LED house light.

All in all the booth exuded style and class. It was not the usual light show but a light show with a specific objective in mind – to feature the quality and strengths of the fixtures through entertainment.

www.eklights.com