Bright Ideas for “Effect”ive Aesthetics

In its earliest form, the bar was something created by and for ancient Egyptians who toiled for hours building the great pyramids and craved a cold fermented beverage at the end of the day. These bars were typically made up a large stone slab, unadorned by anything but dust, resting upon a dirt floor. This was the extent of the aesthetic imagination of the world’s first bar owners. And their patrons, having pushed boulders for 18 hours straight, didn’t seem to mind.

Well, times have changed.

Now more than ever, the successful club owner needs to differentiate his establishment from the options available to patrons not only on a nationwide basis, but also those found in his own city, town, and sometimes the very same block. Improving the aesthetic appeal of your establishment can be accomplished through various channels, be it furniture, barware, structural enhancements, or staffing. But some of the most dramatic and effective steps can be taken in the field of lighting and effects.

DESIGNING A CONCEPT: FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU WANT OR NEED
Creative Nightclubs LLC (www.creativenightclubs.com) of Boynton Beach, Florida, is a full-service nightclub design company that also manufactures many of the products and materials it installs. The company motto is one that club owners should keep in mind: “Don’t destruct. Re-face, reinvent, and reap the rewards.”

President Ken Ranucci’s company has a unique mobile showroom that can visit any club in the country and demonstrate products that may fit an owner’s concept. “Once they have a full hands-on meeting, they understand how they can integrate our elements and designs into their décor,” says Ranucci. Next, a club owner needs to balance what he wants with what he can afford. Aesthetic enhancement, though dynamic, shouldn’t come at the cost of unwieldy debt.

“The right effects can make or break the investment,” says Ranucci. “The window between ‘grand opening’ and ‘out of business’ is the smallest it’s ever been with today’s economy. Keeping that in mind, you can’t just throw some old guitars on the wall and call yourself a rock bar.”

In full agreement is Mike Graham, Sales Support Manager at CHAUVET Lighting (www.chauvetlighting.com) in Hollywood, Florida. “It’s not enough anymore to hang some pin spots and a mirror ball and call it a club,” he says. “The public has been overexposed to massive amounts of lighting technology and they can tell the difference between good and bad.”

Vincent Conigliaro, President of Salvin Sound, Lighting & Club Design (www.salvin.biz) in Kingston, New York, knows the challenges of keeping up with fickle club crowds while balancing the budget. “Even though it’s a budget-driven business, it doesn’t take a lot to make a statement with your lighting and design,” he says. “You don’t have to spend $50,000 on intelligent lighting to make it happen. You just need to know placement. Placement is key.”

https://www.barbizmag.com/images/new/lighting2.jpg

Conigliaro wants club owners to know that they should be very upfront and open about their concepts before any installation process begins, so that their vision can be truly fulfilled.

“We like to come and see the facility, because it’s not as easy as just selling someone a mirror ball and calling it a day—it’s knowing where to hang it and how to light it,” says Conigliaro. “We also want to get into the club owner’s head and find out what his ideas are and what he wants to see done. We can then enlighten them to the new technologies and to other ways of doing the same thing more efficiently.

“A lot of clubs that have been in existence for years can be revamped just by changing an exit or entrance door. We can give the patron who’s been coming through that same door for the past three years a new feel just by directing them another way. Misdirection can create a new point of view, and you can do that with  good lighting.”

WHAT’S OUT THERE
Keeping the economic concerns of bar owners in mind, the folks at Fogscreen™ (www.fogscreen.com) in Mountain View, California, offer a cost-effective solution for club owners looking to install a truly unique effect in their establishment.

“We’re running a program where we’ll install a Fogscreen and the projector and the delivery system for high volume nightclubs and bars for about half the price of the usual install cost,” says Richard Hines, Director of Strategic Sales for Advertising and Branding at Fogscreen. “We’ll set that all up for about half the price of the usual install cost, and then we do a revenue share based upon the liquor brands that choose to pay for time up on the Fogscreen.”

The Fogscreen projection screen produces a thin curtain of “dry” fog that serves as a translucent media, displaying images that float in the air, requiring no fixed screens for patrons to avoid. Rather, patrons can walk directly through the Fogscreen, with no residue or moisture left behind. Club owners should know that the company is actively searching for more bar and club clients, hence the partner program.

Club owners considering Fogcsreen should know that they, like many effect companies, can work from the ground up on a concept, or come into an existing environment and work around it. “If there is a bar being built, we can work with them during the design phase so our product is spec-ed in,” says Hines, “which is absolutely the best scenario for us because we can create an ideal environment for our product to work best.”

In addition to a bevy of specialized lighting products and design consultation and installation services, Salvin offers a similar display product called the H2O Screen, which utilizes water to create the screen effect. “We’re also doing a lot of ‘wall paintings,’ created through the use of lighting, so owners can change the look of the bar by taking it from a light blue in the evening to a deep red at night, for example. It’s a lot of LED work.”

In terms of eye-catching effects, Creative Nightclubs LLC offers club owners some impressive options for spicing up various parts of their bar. The company’s Liquid Floors and Liquid Bar Tops create the illusion of a lava-like substance constantly in motion on your floors and bar tops. Contact with the areas creates a wake effect, mesmerizing patrons dancing and ordering drinks. Products such as the Grand Ice Chandelier allow owners to dress up the often forgotten ceiling space in a club, and pre-made wall panels enhance an entire wall space with flowing designs and lighting.

THE HOT TRENDS
Club owners looking to embellish their aesthetics should familiarize themselves with the trends that are blazing through the hot establishments today. You don’t want to spend precious capital on a look that your patrons have seen before.

“Anyone can blow $4 million on an 8,000-square-foot space without blinking an eye,” says Ranucci. “The real challenge is to do that at a 10th of the price.”

At Salvin, Conigliaro is seeing an increase in one particular lighting segment—LED. “Every two years or so, club owners want to change it up or re-design or add the newest and the latest and greatest technology,” he says. “And right now that’s LED. It’s really coming into its own, and is working its way into the moving fixtures now, not just the still lighting.”

“LED-fitted lights are all the rage now,” says Graham. “The low power draw and the lower heat makes the lights much more economical for the club. LED fixtures are also environmentally friendly and are extremely flexible in their usage.”

So unless you’re serving warm fermented prune juice to exhausted pyramid builders on a stone slab of a bar, always keep in mind that investing in lighting and effects can help distinguish your establishment and improve revenue.