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design awards

	BRONZE AWARD
	Category: First-Time Exhibitor Exhibitor: Ewo srl/GmbH Design: Institute of Friends, Cortaccia, Italy, 39-0471-623087, www.instituteoffriends.com Fabrication: Holtmann Messe + Event GmbH, Langenhagen, Germany, 49-511-740-74-0, www.holtmann.de Show: Light+Building, 2008 Budget: $195,000 Size: 39-by-59 feet Cost/Square Foot: $85

t seems counterintuitive for a company that makes lights to put its exhibit on a dimmer switch. But that's just what designers did for Ewo GmbH's debut at the 2008 Light+Building show.

Instead of bathing its exhibit in illumination, the Kurtasch, Austria-based company wanted to put itself in the spotlight by, well, turning off most of the lights. So it teamed up with Institute of Friends, a design firm in Cortaccia, Italy, to craft an exhibit that drew attendees in like moths to a flame.

The resulting 39-by-59-foot booth was a study in illumination, scale, and shadows. Rather than whitewashing the space in bright, white light as neighboring exhibitors did, designer Hannes Wohlgemuth and crew practiced luminary restraint, using subdued colors, seductive lighting, and dramatic architecture to highlight Ewo's products.

To wit, two pairs of full-size streetlights lay on ramps protruding from the black rubber-pellet floor, angled toward one another. The four streetlights - which were treated more like works of art rather than utilitarian objects - rested between a pair of teepee-like structures dressed in white translucent fabric that rose up nearly 20 feet, breaking through a plane of black scrim. Each structure was illuminated from the inside with blue light.

Inside the structures, attendees discovered models of Ewo light fixtures housed in Plexiglas cases and accompanied by monitors that showed practical applications of the products. The cases and artful lighting elevated the models from industrial products to sophisticated sculptures.

"Far more than a mass of lighting products thrown into a space, this booth featured beautifully displayed products, and an almost museum-quality design," one judge said. Apparently, sometimes "lights out" is a bright idea. E

Lena Valenty, managing editor; [email protected]


			Blue's Clues Instead of drowning the 39-by-59-foot space in white light - a tactic used by many of Ewo srl/GmbH's competitors - exhibit designers used soft, seductive lighting and dramatic architecture to keep the company's products in the spotlight. Two 20-foot-tall teepee-like structures took center stage, each housing scale models of Ewo's lighting products encased in Plexiglas display cases.