German creative director, JoJo Tillmann, brought all his vast experience to bear on
the recent tour by Lena Meyer-Landrut, the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest winner.
After working with the artist last year, the TV and concert lighting specialist decided
on a new approach when the club tour resumed in early 2016, enlisting the help of
GLP (and its market-leading LED portfolio) to achieve a unique solution.
Knowing that Lena is one of the faces of L’Oreal, and that the light should be
concentrated on haloing this feature, he had the Karlsbad manufacturer produce
special versions of the X4 atom, replacing the high output quad colour purely with
cold and warm white LEDs.
He explained the rationale thus: “I like to approach the design from a “content’
perspective, and in this case not use any colour — and she immediately bought into
the idea of using [the atom] as a low, floor-based front light.
JoJo, who is no stranger to using GLP’s impression range, dating right back to the
original impression 90, also knew that by replacing the standard yoke with their
double yoke option — resembling a traditional par can — he could floor stand the
Tunable White lights to get perfect focus on the face. “Sometimes I would light the
band in cold white and Lena in warm white to give her an aura.’
But the designer wasn’t finished yet. To backlight Lena and her band he wanted to
use natural pastels and so turned to GLP’s equally unobtrusive impression X1,
featuring four high powered LEDs with narrow fixed beam. The compact nature of
the impression X1 provided the perfect solution for the smaller club venues as JoJo
explained.
“In front of the drum riser we had six impression X1 to give a shiny back light
behind Lena. As a [circa 1500 capacity] club tour everything was so tightly packed
that you couldn’t light it upstage; being so lightweight, and compact it was
absolutely ideal — but I have known that for a long time. As a designer this is an
important light for me.’
Noting the “big impact’ impression 90 made when it burst onto the scene he has
kept pace with the technical evolution, which hit a new benchmark with the X4
series, after a succession of “me too’ brands had threatened market share.
Recently he used the new X4 Bars at a carnival event in Cologne, and will be taking
them out again later this spring with the duo Milky Chance.
The X4 series, he says, works well for him. “I like the idea of being able to get all
the colour and intensity from one uniform device; as a designer that suits me.’
Lighting inventory for the tour was provided by PA-Team Medientechnik from Bonn.
