CHICAGO — Kehoe Designs, an event design company based here, has been using Clay Paky’s A.leda B-EYE K20 LED-based moving lights and Sharpy fixtures for recent events in the area, including a party hosted by the San Francisco Travel Association at the Grand Ballroom of the Palmer House Hotel (an after-party linked to the US Travel Association’s recent International Pow Wow, pictured here) and the 25th anniversary celebration for a major international financial services company.
More details from Clay Paky (www.claypaky.it) and distributor A.C.T Lighting (www.actlighting.com):
Creating Gilded Glamour for IPW
The San Francisco Travel Association’s event was themed “Rococo A-Go-Go.” Kehoe Designs matched the ornate elegance of the ballroom with a gilded glamour of its own, featuring Go-Go dancers, some in golden cages, performing on the main level, and a live band and a DJ playing off one another on the mezzanine’s stage area.
“The San Francisco Travel Association has always hosted one of the coolest and most exclusive parties at IPW,” notes Adam McCarthy, Kehoe Designs’ lighting designer and event technology manager.
In his first deployment of the new fixtures, he placed eight Clay Paky B-EYEs around the perimeter of the ballroom mounted on truss towers in the mezzanine. “The B-EYEs gave us a range of visual options, and we used them as beams, wash lights and effects lights – especially the latter since this was a dance club environment,” he reports. “The B-EYEs performed all the functions of profile and wash lights and gave us the kind of effects lighting they couldn’t.”
Six Sharpys, a favorite fixture for every show, were also mounted on the mezzanine truss towers where they cut through the atmospherics created by hazers and a low fogger. “It was such a spacious ballroom, but we were able to get beam effects across the space by using Sharpys and B-EYEs,” McCarthy explains.
He also used Sharpys to highlight some focal décor elements, including large gilded foliage pieces. “The Sharpys are similar to pin spots in their beam angle but far brighter and with all the adjustment possibilities of a moving light,” he says. “We used the Sharpy’s CTO filter to wash the gilded foliage, which would have been lost with a traditional pin spot.”
Glamorizing a Corporate Anniversary
A few weeks later Kehoe Design created glamour of a different sort to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a major international financial services company in The Chicago Illuminating Company’s loft-like, contemporary event space.
Drawing inspiration from geometric and abstract pieces of décor art in its inventory, Kehoe Designs created a speakeasy vibe with live band in the cocktail area and staged ‘Dueling DJs’ on the dance floor.
McCarthy mounted two B-EYEs on a 14-foot high LED tower behind each DJ and positioned several more B-EYEs around the room at a lower level for a different play of angles and beams. “The B-EYEs are very fast and offer really nice color, which is critical to our approach to design. We used its full spectrum of colors, including pastels,” he says.
He also deployed four Sharpys: one on each DJ stage and two in the balcony to maximize the throw distance to achieve “cool beam shots across the space” and through haze.
McCarthy notes that Kehoe Designs typically has “very limited set up time for events, so we need lights that always work – that’s critical for us. Clay Paky is a manufacturer with a reputation for high-quality gear, and they always deliver on that.”
The clients for both parties declared the lighting “spectacular,” says David Brandt, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Kehoe Designs.
“We plan to use more B-EYEs in the future,” adds McCarthy. “They have joined our roster of favorite fixtures.”
Intelligent Lighting Creations (ILC) is a Chicago-area dealer for Clay Paky fixtures. “We were very eager to stock the B-EYEs,” says senior account executive Justin Wardell. “They are a wonderful, versatile fixture suitable for every lighting application and a great complement for the ever-popular Sharpys.”
Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky Area Manager for North and Latin America, commented, “Kehoe is doing some very interesting work and it sounds like they are putting our lights to good use. We’re glad to be able to support them in their ventures.”
