Our industry, the entertainment design and technology field, is a small niche but its tentacles and influence spread throughout the entire entertainment business, which of course touches millions and millions of people daily. For the past 40 years, I have been writing about design and designers for our magazines and websites, and I love it when the designers and art directors and other folks in our world are covered in the mainstream press. There has been a lot of that in the past week so I thought I’d take you on a little tour of those folks who have been in the spotlight.
Steve Lieberman is one of the coolest lighting and production designers on the planet. He owns his own company, SJ Lighting, flies his own plane, and creates some of the most visually exciting designs, notably for clubs and festival stages. One of the tools in his toolbox is SketchUp for 3D workflow, and he was recently featured on the SketchUp blog.
Before Lieberman, there were certainly other influential figures everyone should know, and they hardly need an introduction. A website called warmwhite (new perspectives in lighting design) did a little roundup of famous design names: Adolphe Appia, Joseph Svoboda, Robert Wilson, Es Devlin, and Bert Neumann. A nice refresher, or introduction.
Featured in the Los Angeles Times last week was scenic designer John Iacovelli, whose career spans the past four decades, who is a multiple award winner, and recently designed a revival of Arsenic And Old Lace. What a pleasure to see him get such a great article in a major paper.
Meet Scott Shaffer, senior art director for Disney Parks Live Entertainment, who started studying to be an engineer then switched to theatrical set designer, in Disney’s “every role a starring role” video series:
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mickey Mouse? Will bringing the film version of Hamilton out under the Disney label eventually result in a Hamilton land in the theme parks?