My first job out of College, i worked for years developing a Faux Neon light fixture that uses LEDs. There are very few other LED products that can be bent and shaped like it. It is a very playful product and lends itself to creativity.

Theres a great synergy between the product and traveling tradeshows. Allows colorful, fun, unique, personalized displays.

Often i will design and build one of the iconic skyscrapers of the hosting city.

This was for the first tradeshow I attended, and it happened to be local. I made a simple Chicago Skyline to show off the bending ability of the product, as well as added some smaller sized fixtures to show how small they can be made. People were really excited by it. I also created a face i called “Dr. iLight”

There was a lighting design who particularly liked the skyline and said she had the perfect project for the fixture. 2 years later i was On-site to help with this installation.

Next Year, theres a show in NYC, So i drew up a couple designs, and marketing wanted the Chrysler building, so i built it.

By now, the sales team loves these signs, they tell me they are a sales “weapon”, and that i need to “equip” them with another sign for upcoming show in Chicago. I laughed and told them that i would do it, even though i was getting a little bored of single color building signs.

So to spice it up, i decided i wanted to design something that had really complex, and impressive fixtures. I also wanted to add multiple colors, or some fun dimming, but i knew the sales team would prefer something more mild and elegant.

I decided that the John Hancock Building had the most favorable design. The John Hancock has X-shaped support beams, Zig-Zaging all the way up. I wanted to try and capture that with a single fixture, but i knew it would be very hard to manufacture.

I drew it up in AutoCAD, took some screenshots, and then called up the plant. They said it looks very difficult but they would try to make it. I encouraged them to try, and ensured they knew there was no pressure. finally i reminded them how great all the other stuff they made looks and that i was confident, whatever they could do, would look great.

When this fixture arrived, I was amazed!
The Sign certainly hit the mark of impressive and unique.

Luckily, the plant made an extra set of fixtures incase there was an issue during shipping. since there was no issue during shipping, i decided to swap one out for Color Changing LEDs.

Next, the team is going to London for a show. They wanted Big Ben, I made them Big Ben.

The next Job was the Empire State Building in New York

Marketing team liked this one enough to make chapsticks with it.