One of the more fortunate circumstances in our industry is that it is still young enough that many of the pioneers are still around. This month, we had the opportunity to speak with a lighting designer who was present at the birth of the industry in the United States, who helped define the craft, and who had a hand in some of the innovations in modern concert lighting, including the automated lighting fixture and color changer. Today, Stefan Graf owns two successful companies, yet still found the time to speak with PLSN.
PLSN: How did you get started in this industry?
Stefan Graf: I started in 1969, touring with Grand Funk Railroad before they had a stage lighting system. I was working as a production manager — kind of an executive roadie position — and doing their sound for them. I saw the English bands coming over with lighting systems — back then it was Frensels on boom bases and some lekos — and told Grand Funk that if they were America’s premier rock band, they needed to get into lighting soon, and that I wanted to help them build their lighting system.
Back then, Jim Fackert (founder of CAE, Inc.) was the head electrician for the tour, and we had been talking about this because we shared a house together in Ann Arbor. Finally, they agreed, gave us some money, and we built Grand Funk’s first lighting system. It was pretty advanced; we were the first to use multiconductor cabling, and we discovered these Genie pneumatic towers used in the HVAC industry, so we used those to raise the lights up in the air, and we used a Unistrut framing systems. We thought we were the first (to use the Unistrut system,) but Showco had built something similar in Dallas, and it showed up at one of the shows we were at. It was pretty innovative at the time.
Working together, you and Jim Fackert developed some inventive products. You are credited with inventing one of the first automated stage lighting fixtures.
With Grand Funk, we were pretty progressive with the first lighting system. But Jim, who now owns Leprecon and Littlite, was a very innovative, forward-thinking individual. One evening, I was complaining about the fact that Mark Farner moved around so much, and back then there was no such thing as an upstage followspot because there were no trusses. And he said, “Why don’t we develop an automated spotlight to follow him around?” I thought he was kidding, but, in fact, at the time, he was learning about servo motors and things like that. To make a long story short, I asked him how much it would cost, and I kept feeding him money each week, and he kept buying surplus solenoids and servo motors from an Army surplus place. He put together this device we called the Cyklops. It was like a huge one-eyed automated monster. Soon after that, he developed a six-frame boomerang color changer, which we used with Grand Funk and a couple of other tours extensively.
The color changer was controlled 0–10 volts, right? It was automated too.
Yeah. It went on the front of PAR cans, lekos and the Fresnels that we were using. Both of those were inspirations for Vari-Lite and scrolling color changers.
How did you make the jump to designer?
I was designing, building and operating the lighting system. In between Grand Funk tours, we started getting requests to have the lights go out with other bands, so I worked with a few other groups like Johnny and Edgar Winter, The James Gang and War. I really enjoyed the creative aspects of lighting, but even with three or four tours a year, that’s only three or four designs. I realized it was designing I enjoyed, yet it was only about 5% of what you do when you own a lighting company.
In the late ‘70s, I visited a friend who was in theatre lighting and started working for an architectural lighting company in Detroit, called the Smith Group. They had a lighting team, and while I was visiting with him, he asked, “What do you like most about what you do?” I said, “Well, the design work.” He said, “Come here.” And he took me over to the window — we were on the 20th floor of this office building — and he said, “See all those buildings out there? They all need lighting!” He explained that if I enjoyed lighting design, I ought to consider getting into architectural lighting. I agreed.
I started attending the IES conferences, and at least 90% of the seminars were way over my head, but the 10% that were about design issues, I really enjoyed. I started reading everything I could get my hands on that dealt with architectural lighting. There was a book by William Lam called Perception and Lighting as Formgivers for Architecture. At the time, William Lam was a leader of architectural lighting, and he was really into the creative aspects of design and the psychology of light and how we see, what we see — and that really got me excited about architectural lighting.
Now you are the owner and principal at Illuminart. What type of projects do you do?
We do commercial, residential, retail, landscape lighting and just about anything that comes along that deals with architectural lighting and creative solutions. We’re currently working on a number of large retail projects, such as grocery store chains, shopping malls, and we’re doing a casino. We’ve got a series of indoor-themed water parks we are doing and we are working on three or four churches. It’s pretty exciting.
What kind of lighting solutions do you tend to use for your architectural projects, and how have they changed as of late?
The technology is advancing at a very rapid rate, just like concert and theatre lighting. Of course, LEDs are the champion of that new technology. There’s a lot of buzz about it, and it’s a fabulous technology for some applications, but it still hasn’t gotten to the point where it has replaced con-ventional light sources. It’s really developed its own arena of new options to choose from. In addition to that, metal halide light sources are getting smaller and brighter and have much better color rendering and color stability. Compact fluorescent lighting sources, which have been around for 10 or 15 years, are still improving, so there are lots of sources to choose from.
You’ve been involved in some interesting studies about quality of light and how it impacts people. What’s that about?
I’m involved in a lot of research and education programs, and I’ve been studying light and health issues, the psychology of light, how we see, what we see, and how it affects human performance in a lot of different applications. What we’ve learned is that our assumptions are true: Better light makes people feel better, improves their psychological health and physiological health, and is a huge benefit to just about any environment. The most dramatic is the benefit to, let’s say, office workers and the corporation that is employing those office workers. The return on investment is so fast it’s phenomenal. Let’s say you are building an office complex and you spend an extra $100,000 for improved lighting quality. The typical return on investment is about three years, in maintenance and energy reductions.
If you integrate daylight into the workspace, and you were to invest $100,000 to do that, the return that investment in worker productivity and satis-faction, and reduced absenteeism and turnover, is less than one year. The highest cost to any employer, or building operation, walks in on two legs every day. The average people cost in an office is $200 per square foot per year. The average lighting cost, to build a reasonably good quality lighting system, is $10 a square foot. These are just some round numbers, but you can see that if you improve the productivity and satisfaction, and reduced absenteeism and turnover by as little as 5%, so there is a 5% benefit to the company, that’s more than the entire lighting system, initially.
Do you have studies that show that?
Yes, and I’m using really conservative numbers. It’s just mind-boggling.
Are those the type of things that keep you excited about the industry?
Everything excites me about the industry. [Laughs]
Would you say an opportunity exists for theatrical lighting designers in the architectural lighting field?
Absolutely. I still do shows and event lighting and the field of architectural lighting design is growing leaps and bounds. Everybody that owns an architectural lighting design firm is crying out about not being able to find enough help. And that goes for everything from being a CAD-jockey to a junior or senior lighting designer. As a result, those companies are having to turn work down. There is a real need in our (architectural lighting) industry to recruit young students, or anybody, who has a sense or interest in lighting to make a career choice in that direction.
So what you’re saying is, it’s a viable source for employment, income and creative outlet, which people probably don’t realize.
Exactly. Anybody who has a passion for lighting design should consider it. You can always do theatre lighting, but you can diversify into architectural lighting, too.
Speaking of diversification: You are the proud owner of a second company — Fantasee Lighting — that is pretty much employee operated.
I started Fantasee Lighting in 1976. About seven years ago, the partners and I split up and they wanted to keep the company, so I took Illuminart and opened a separate office. About three years ago, I took the company back and made a commitment to revitalize it. We were fortunate; I told myself that if I couldn’t find the right people I was going to let it go. In business and in personal life, it’s all about people and relationships.
I was fortunate to find some really good people at another small company in the area called Turning Point. Their owner wanted to move to Austin, Texas, so we acquired Turning Point, and with that we brought in Brian Kemp, Jimmy Herr, Nate Mulvihill and Kevin Phail. And then, Barb Silber also joined us. She’s got 20 years experience doing production work with major concerts and productions. It’s been a really successful team, and the growth rate has been phenomenal. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from all of our clients. What’s exciting for me is that I participate in training programs, staff meetings and big-picture ideas, but the company pretty much runs itself. It’s been a blessing.
