UK – Glamour and elegance can coexist with eco-friendliness and social responsibility. Rapidly growing Lush Cosmetics has demonstrated this point in convincing fashion. From a single shop launched a decade ago in Poole, Dorset, the company has mushroomed into an 800-store 50-country chain that sells and produces a variety of natural vegetable- and fruit-based beauty products that are never tested on animals. Fittingly, the light show at the company’s 2015 global awards embodied the same combination of style and sensibility that characterises Lush, thanks in large measure to an almost-all LED collection of fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Presentation Design Services Ltd. provided staging, PA, set, AV and drapes, in addition to lighting, for the two-day event, which attracted 800 guests from around the world to the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC). Essential to setting the glittering mood at the event and gala was a versatile assortment of Chauvet Professional products that included 12 Nexus Aw 7x7 warm white LED panels, eight Rogue R1 Beam moving fixtures, eight Rogue R1 Spot moving fixtures and 90 PVP S5 LED Panels (supplied to Presentation Design Services by Impact Production Services).

“The event was spread across three rooms of the BIC and required full production for a main conference space as well as a glittering evening awards dinner,” said James Johnson, project manager at Presentation Design Services. “We were able to use the lighting to create fantastic dynamic venues at different points around the conference centre.”

Amongst the more beguiling visual elements of the Lush Awards gala were the intricate and dynamic moving patterns that floated across the stage’s kabuki backing. These enchanting images were created by the Rogue R1 Spot LED fixture, which features a motorised iris for beam shaping, two gobo wheels (one of which has seven interchangeable gobos) and a 16.5° beam angle.
“We’ve enjoyed creating images with the R1 Spot in the past,” said Johnson. “At the Lush Awards these fixtures created pure magic by projecting images across an 18m wide kabuki. Everyone at the gala was impressed.”

The eight Rogue R1 Beams (the only non-LED Chauvet Professional fixtures used) were rigged alongside a collection of well-known high output moving fixtures, to create mid-air effects during the award ceremonies and the live music performances. “We were extremely interested to see how these fixtures would work alongside each other,” said Johnson. “Apart from a small movement speed difference the R1 Beams outperformed their more expensive rival. They added a great deal of excitement to the stage.”

Also creating visual excitement on stage were the 12 Nexus Aw 7x7 LED panels. Projecting very sharp narrowly focused beams of warm white light, the panels excel at creating a concert atmosphere even at intimate corporate events. Johnson and the Presentation Design Services team spread the Nexus panels across the stage and rigged them in pairs. This made it easier for the team to dress the stage and for the performers to fit between the fixtures.

“Our first choice wasn’t the Nexus when we started looking at eye candy and pixel-mappable fixtures,” said Johnson. “We first looked at a more widely used single strip type fixture. But due to the messy rigging and limited capabilities involved with these fixtures we were open to suggestions. So as soon as we had a demo of the Nexus panels we were instantly drawn to them, The Nexus Aw 7x7 panels are simple to rig and address, we control them using Art-Net.”

The 90 PVP S5 LED panels were used to create video walls that were flown on trusses on either side of the main stage. With a 1500 NITs rating, and 5.2mm pixel pitch, the panels delivered the brightness and resolution needed to make images easy to see in the main gala room. Flying the panels on truss provided “a much quicker and visibly better looking option than using projectors and custom screen surfaces,” according to Johnson.

Describing the programme as a “huge success,” Johnson is especially proud to have achieved this result for Lush Cosmetics. “This is a client consistently at the top of The Times’ ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ list,” he said. “It’s also a client that has been at the forefront of doing so many good things, so it felt good creating an event that reflected well on this client.”