Purple Reign…

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Perth, 27^th September 2013

This Saturday will see the grand final in AFL when the Fremantle Dockers meet Hawthorn at the MSG. May all sound jargon to you, but down here in Australia the Footy Grand Final at the MSG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) is similar to the Super Bowl final in the US. I was in Fremantle this morning and eventhough legions of fans have already flown out to Melbourne, the city was one sea of purple; the club colour. It is the first time in its 19 year history that the club has reached the Grand Final after some exciting matches and as can be expected there are high expectation that the boys will bring home the cup! Council House was dressed up with white and purple balloons, the TV that normally broadcasts the cities services was more dominated by Go-Freo ! slogans. In the city bars café’s the retail shops all have a purple in some form of way, people in the streets are dressed and coloured in purple…It is interesting to see how sport can unite people together!

As it happens two of my projects here do have that integrated need for flexibility in lighting to allow mood setting towards events that happen in and around town. It is a fact of life that LED lighting and specifically the RGB versions have made it a lot easier to create colour magic. It certainly is a lot simpler than adding colour filters to light fittings. I remember well the heat problems that it used to create with cracking and fading glass or dicroic colour filters (if not properly designed). We now have an infinite freedom to create colour palettes within our lighting designs; the challenge being to control the urge to overdo it and to haphazardly use colours. As always we need to design with purpose!

Light Watch 4-165: For now there is a big purple haze throughout Perth and Fremantle. I can just imagine what it will be once they bring the cup home J Here are some purple lighting moods to support the Dockers …Go the Dockers!