[The Originals] Profile of Ray Thompson

Ray Of Light

By Liese Gardner

The Originals is a series of profiles of industry professionals. “Originals” refers not to being first at something, but to a way of thinking that has brought innovation and freshness to their genre, the industry and the events they create.

Light. An essential element of life. An essential element of event design. And to Ray Thompson, an essential element of his own spirit.

Ray Thompson founded Images by Lighting in 1980 and I’ve known him almost all those years. His work set the standard for lighting and one could find Ray on all the best ladders in town focusing pinspots himself! Of course Images has come a long way and Ray is now joined in business and life with partner Curt Stahl, himself a talented lighting designer. Their work has taken them to Dubai, Bora Bora, Europe, as well as all over the United States.

Yet even after all these events and all these years, there is still a profound passion in Ray’s voice (as well as the accompanying emphatic gestures) when he talks about lighting and color. In fact, his passion has seemed to grow even stronger as new products have come along that allow him even greater expression of emotion and energy through light.

Words and terms such as DL3, Mac 3, moving heads, media servers, and LEDs take on a mythic quality when he talks. But they are really just the instruments that he uses to turn his passion into something more than metal and gels.

“I think of my media as emotional movement and light,” Ray says. “The biggest joy I’ve found is working with light not just to illuminate, but to create an arc of emotion throughout an event.”

Fueled by Color

The spectrum of light is represented by colors that have been found to correspond to areas in our bodies, called chakras. It’s something Ray has studied and finds is a strong influence in how he uses light and color. “The whole chakra thing is my personal mission and not something I’m trying to sell to the industry,” Ray says. “But its wisdom I can take from my own passion and apply it to events.” And it’s what makes the environments he lights so special; almost what might be called color therapy.

“When someone wants a room to be blue, I tell them how people will react.” He says. “You can use blue, but not as the only color. I suggest shifting it back to the warm tones of red, which gets the blood going, oranges and yellows that feel sexy and warm.”

It’s not just about lighting some “thing” but creating a total enveloping environment. “That’s why I also get so inspired when we see performances and concerts. It shows how to take large scale and bring it to an event space. And some of the technology from this genre is becoming more affordable for an event producer to bring in. We create worlds within events with video screens and walls, LED screens, video projection and mapping as we did at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising annual show in Los Angeles.”

Event Profile – FIDM

“We’ve been doing the shows at FIDM for the past six or seven years,” Ray says. “It’s a fashion show so there are doors that can be moved and two big video screens. About two years ago we were looking for something new. We’d used all the intelligent equipment there was and the producer, Jim Watterson, was ready to retire. Then we discovered video mapping through the DL3. We made the video screen into hard walls and used video projectors to orchestrate an entire show through video with imagery and effect.”

With this new technology, any creative malaise was quickly swept away and renewed excitement came over all involved. “Jim even decided not to retire so he could explore the possibilities more,” Ray says. “This year, instead of just textures, we also worked architecture in. (See first photo). When you would see Russian inspired clothes, the image would be of a Russian palace. Jim is re-engaged and re-excited and so is the institute. Now their fashion shows are truly state-of-the art.”

New ways of seeing – whether it’s with technology or simply changing focus and the angle by which you see something — can refuel our passions. Searching deeper for the next “right answer” as Ray has is the way we continue to find energy, wonder and excitement in everything we do. As creative beings we are searching all the time in our work for this. It’s the passion that drive us. Many times, when we find it, it’s hard for others to see it but because he works in color and light, Ray’s passion is literally there for all to see, polished with experience and time so it is even more vibrant today than when he began.