Work at Digitaria

www.digitariaworld.com
http://www.londonnet.co.uk/fashion/fashion-news/digitaria-london

Yesterday I went and hung up the lighting for today's showing of my lighting at Digitaria in conjunction with Ada who had her sample collection from last season on viewing and for purchase. A lovely woman who had alot of interesting collaborative ideas for the fashion integration with EL Wire. I am going to meet up with her in some idea proposals and a good old fashion brainstorm. http://www.fashion-stylist.net/blog/2009/04/10/an-interview-with-ethical-designer-ada-zanditon/

As for my lighting it went off with a bang with a buzz of people talking about it. It graced the sexy stalls set aside for the lovely women and men trying on Ada's creation to enter into and served the purpose of illuminating them as they tried on the designers creations. As well I brought in one of my costume pieces that will be in a photoshoot tomorrow and will have pictures in the next post along with links from a few fashion blogs that have snapped photos of my creation for their own bloggings.

Included in the lighting collection are two of the vintage porn lamps, and two of the comic book lamps. One of the vintage porn lamp (the large flat bottomed one) has been sold as said before, but the other elongated one (to the right) its still for sale. I really think so far this is my favorite shape that I have created for my hanging lights in this medium. As well I am fascinated by the black and white with touches of color and really enjoy the way the red illuminates. Its very graphic, but once the light comes through it is almost a different type of viewing, the lines and form of the paper is more apparent than the subject matter of the lighthing itself. Very interesting allowing for a different look vs on and off lighting (night and day).

Look to the next post for pictures from the party featuring the illuminated costume piece. I met some lovely people from different fields including some requests to work on catwalk design for next years fashion week, and to work on creating some costume pieces for Vishee , very lovely singer !! More to come :) !

Jeffrey - xx

Vintage Porn Lamp

A new release from Jeffrey Michael Design. Commissioned by a very famous hair stylist, this lamp is based on very classy vintage gay pornography sourced from a stall in Camden Market dealing with vintage magazines and ads. Made with overlapping pieces of vintage black and white, the pieces have been carefully selected to contain one or two focal color pieces. At the time most of the magazines were in black and white and were just coming into the market of using color photography mainstream. Several points of contact on the lamp have color leaking through from the image behind giving of a soft glow. The light that emits is a beautiful yellow.

This piece with three others have been selected by Digitaria for a showpiece next Thursday featuring music and fashion by Ada. http://www.digitariaworld.com/ & http://www.londonnet.co.uk/fashion/fashion-news/digitaria-london .

As well they have decided to sell my pieces becoming my first retail outlet !! Very exciting news for my lighting.

The first test run has been done last Friday at another fashion party in which the vintage lamp was at a focal table, and very well received as pictured below.

Neon Wall

This is a commission in combination with several others for one of my new clients. They are a lovely couple living with a gorgeous panoramic view of London. I am doing several outdoor and indoor projects for them and they have asked me to "go crazy" and just think completely outside the box for one very special area outside near the entrance to their glorious penthouse ! These are my quick renderings of my imagination for a gorgeous neon wall, giving them the crazy and less crazy option :) !

This project is an ongoing one because there are several specific lights that I have been requested to do including an office light, organizer light for the living room, and two large outdoor "rock" shaped lights of metal, and woven wood or grass. It is a very lovely job and I will probably be working with them for the next several months creating their lighting scheme :) !

- Jeffrey xx

Teaser - Industrial Strength

Our fantastic models Imogen and Poya. This is a little teaser to show what is to come for Industrial Strength. I concept brought to me in a frenzy sleepless night turned into a reality ! Thanks to Kofi our fabulous photographer who is now retouching these as we speak, and to all the amazing hair , styling and makeup team who put in a great effort making this look fantastic :) !

The shoot went very well and we began quite early with makeup and hair. I took at Poya's eyebrows for an hour and a half and worked some magic, while Oliver of the hair team attacked his hair and slicked it back.

Meanwhile Raluca was doing Imogen's makeup and Kota worked on bringing her hair to life and sweeping it up like in my vision board that I sent him for the styling.

Finally, everything was ready and Kofi had prepared the lighting and backdrop on the set and we brought in everyone and began the wrapping of Imogen in the lighting to see which colors to use (white or blue) and Kofi said blue to be retouched later if required. We began with everyone on set and prepped Imogen and then slowly got the lighting and set perfect. It was a closed set during some of the shooting after Imogen was warmed up.

We then returned later to have Poya do his leaning shot such as the sketch with Imogen in the same frame. Having little time left we created our second closed set with Poya, me and Kofi, where I helped to light him in his own shots.

Really it turned out better than I could have imagined and I can't get over how only a month and a half ago this was an idea in my head waiting to be brought to life. After an intense session of posing and brain storming in Cafe Nero it is amazing to see it really come to life. To see Imogen hit the exact pose of the sketch, and to watch her look exactly as we had placed her against Poya in our original sketch was both eerie and amazing. Finally to see Kofi's creative directing on set was such a lesson in itself. Truly a professional and destined for great things.

Our next shoot is scheduled for November 27th with the girls of storm. Of which I am making a corset with Christmas Balls. Very chicque (think Cheryl Cole's recent dress)

Industrial Strenth Photo Shoot

So the day is quickly approaching for November 16th !! This is the first photoshoot to brand Jeffrey Michael Design and to put up on the main website page. The first shoot is with a sexy male and female model of which I just got confirmation with both of them this past week (YAY!) and exactly the two that I wanted. I have finally gotten all the teams together for hair and makeup and styling and me and Kofi couldn't be more excited to shoot on Monday. This is the first artistic directing but most certainly not the last that I have done. Me and Kofi definately are co directing it and I am just happy to see my vision come alive. I really felt this photoshoot and saw it first in my head again from a dream I had. And then, in Cafe Nero I posed out to Kofi the strength I wanted the man to have and the support the woman was getting from him all wrapped in the lighting.

This shoot is going to mark a fantastic point in my life and I know its going to beckon so many new opportunities for me !! This is just one of many shoots that I am going to direct from now on and we have great interest from Vogue and Pop on this shoot !! I am going to attach a quick sketch from when me and Kofi first drew it at the Cafe Nero. Cross your fingers! And keep posted for the final image to be posted next week !

- Jeffrey xx

New Commission at the Stag Hampstead

A new day, a new commission.

This one came from the lovely Stag Hampstead Pub, in which I will be meeting with the sexy owner tomorrow. We are discussing some new lighting solutions for his already very chique bar. His clientelle include Gwenth Paltrow!! So he said alot of new commissions will come from him showing my lighting in his bar. Im very excited to do this as I have been imagining the perfect bar, and then out of no where it came to me tonight while chatting with my friend. I wasn't aware he owned a bar and now we are going to have coffee at his place on the outskirts of Camden.

This bar is so sexy and the pictures on the website do it great justice. I can't wait to show him these sketches of which you are all getting a preview of. They are gorgeous red and navy blue bottles that have been collected by me. They are currently sitting all over my room (all 30 of them) and expertly mixing the lighting coming through my window to inspire me over and over ever time I wake up :) ! Wish me luck !!!

- Jeffrey xx

Lighting as Costume

For Halloween 2009 I was invited to a fabulous evening out with some amazing friends from work. We went out to two different venues, and had an amazing adventure winding our way through the streets of London fully dressed up. We had a ringmaster, Harry Potter, Sexy Cop, Beyonce Robot (me) and Justin in his sexy red hand designed coat (fab). We decided that we were all going to go all out on our costumes (and me being me I totally felt it) and made sure I thought about it for a long while before I committeed and then started creating. The lights were supplied by work and i stitched them each one by one into my V Neck :)









I wanted to do something really special for halloween to highlight my skills as both a costume designer and lighting designer. This pieces was inspired by the Beyonce motorcycle dress. Thus the amazing shoulderpads!!

I used LED lights and connected them all to battery points which were woven around my belt. The main central pieces were taken from an old Mac computer which became my BEYONCE chest plate ! It was amazing because so many Asian tourists took photos with me all evening and SO many photos of me are now floating around facebook! Here I took pics after the party (we came back in around 5 am) to highlight the feeling of the light and darkness. I literally lit up the party when the lights went out because it was synced with the music :) ! I met so many amazing people last night and am so thankful for the new business contacts and friends I met through this costume !
































As well I have decided that I'm going to be making a pair of wings (think Victoria Secret) for some parties that I will be going to and also for our work window display :) ! Amazing and sexy, and im going to make them on a frame so that I can have them bounce :) ! Ok more later!

- Jeffrey X