At Orange Frog Productions, our passion is lighting up the best moments in your life. Curated lighting packages that add romance to weddings, excitement to parties, enrichment to product launches, and enchantment to stage productions is what we live for. However, we are not the only industry insiders that glow in this regard. Event planners, photographers, and production artists are increasingly using custom lighting at their events. Today, some of the top event talent in Calgary explain why.

e=mc2 events


Since 2001, e=mc2 events has delivered live events and conference services across North America.

“Lighting at events is 100 percent necessary. Lighting design is what sets events apart,” says Keri Miller, partner and chief creative strategist. “Lighting and lighting design are such fundamentals and are integral parts of design and human behaviour. I always find it intriguing that it is still questioned as a required expense in a budget.”

Miller continues, “Events are about all the moments that matter for a guest: the message, the food, the design, the entertainment, and the instagrammable moments – simply put, if your client paid for it to get there… light it!  Lighting can expand simple décor into immersive environments and increase the energy of the entertainment. It is a powerful tool in our tool box.

“Good event lighting is simply enhancing the assets that guests need to see and eliminating those that they don’t. The absence of lighting to create intimate spaces is as important as highlighting a hallway, a sign, a performer, or table.  Lighting design is integral in creating a mood and activating a desired emotion, the right colour and colour combination alongside the right balance of LED and traditional fixtures, patterns and movement all contribute to how our guests feel and behave in a space.”

It is clear that e=mc2 knows how to maximize lighting.

“A great lighting designer will engage in the entire experience that we are creating for our clients, enhancing the chef’s creations and finding the details and colours, patterns and elevations of a design team’s elements, featuring with perfect timing the dynamic aspects of the event, the entertainment and speakers,” says Miller. “Finding a way to tie all the pieces together and telling a story along the way is magic.”

Miller concludes, “Of course great lighting provides amazing opportunities for capturing our work, but first and foremost we believe in creating a desired environment for guests. Through energy or emotion, lighting is a great partner in achieving that. When we immerse guests in an experience that matters, lit appropriately and highlighting all the other details we have painstakingly infused into an experience design, we win with happy guests and have a very happy client.”

Jennifer James Events

Jennifer James Events provides event services including production, marketing, and consulting. “Your lighting not only helps set the mood as people walk through the doors, it also helps tell a story,” explains Jennifer James, CEO and event producer. “Great lighting has texture and dimension. It takes your event to a new level. My portfolio is built on beautiful décor, but what really makes each picture pop and tell a story is the lighting design that enhances the décor.”

One West Event Design

A creative partner for collaborators, creators, doers, and dreamers, One West Event Design sees custom lighting as “one of the most important aspects of an event – it’s the finishing touch to the entire design, and everything comes together the second that switch is flipped.”

“We use lighting to set a tone and create the right mood, which is incredibly important to an event’s overall success,” says Dustin Westling, CSEP, managing partner. “Good lighting is totally immersive, no matter where you happen to be in the event space at any given moment. We look for a seamless floor-to-ceiling blend where every angle has been considered.”

Westling notes the importance of collaboration. “Working with great lighting partners is huge for us – not only does lighting provide the final touch to our design, pulling the décor together and creating the ambiance we’re aiming for, but it can be used in really practical ways. Creative lighting can add texture or depth to a space, help to bring in a large space or open up a small space, and create focal points that draw the eye or guide flow. Good lighting is not an afterthought to our design – it’s an intentional, collaborative part of the plan. Plus, it makes for killer photos!”

Proshow Audiovisual

Proshow Audiovisual enhances events with custom audiovisual services that include 4K+ projection screens, HD cameras, webcasting, sound reinforcement, and more.

“Without lighting at an event, you lose a major opportunity to draw guests’ attention at key times and build texture and feel to an otherwise flat room,” explains Jarrett Hartwell, general manager.

His expectations for good lighting at events include creativity in design and an eye for tying elements together. “Every event has a theme. If the entire technical production team works together, lighting can create impact through the whole room instead of just at the stage.”

Custom lighting has a positive effect on Proshow’s events. “Lighting helps incorporate the message of the event across all aspects of the room,” says Harwell. “It ties video content to décor and creates the theatre that keeps attendees engaged and excited to be part of the experience.”

Photos with Finesse

Suzan McEvoy is the owner and chief exposure officer of the award-winning company Photos with Finesse.

“Lighting adds the ‘wow factor’ to events, and is a photographer’s favourite addition to any setting,” says McEvoy. “You walk into a room and everything glows, or there are projections bouncing off walls transforming spaces from the ordinary to the extraordinary!  A performer is highlighted, a seating area is inviting, a cake is pin-spotted.”

What does McEvoy look for with custom lighting? “For me, as an event photographer, whilst I absolutely love the impact of a big lighting show and huge budget, it’s the speaker stage that’s often neglected, but benefits most.  A little uplighting on a simple backdrop and highlights on a speaker add warmth to any image and showcases the special guests.  Fill flash just doesn’t do it the same justice – especially if the backdrop is a plain wood wall that bounces flash back in a glaringly obvious way, in a room with no windows, and standard horrible yellowy/green lighting.  I always suggest to my clients that if they have any budget for lighting, it goes on the stage – especially for events like award ceremonies.  Everything else is an added bonus!”

She concludes, “This photographer loves it when there’s great lighting.  It adds mood to images and makes an excellent background when showcasing guests having a great time.”

Custom Lighting is Always on Trend

Your special event deserves to be in the limelight. Those in the event planning world, from technicians to photographers, planners to promoters, agree that custom event lighting is what it takes to go from a standard event to a memorable masterpiece.

Contact us today to discuss your custom lighting needs.