This year Artistic Licence has been celebrating its 20th anniversary. During this time we have evolved from our rock ‘n’ roll origins into a company focused on architectural lighting and installations and worked successfully on developing our international presence.
By focusing on the two halves of the company - product development and project design & installation – Managing Director, Wayne Howell, has developed a sophisticated and prolific product range which can be taken both as total solutions or as components for incorporation into individual designs.
We have seen these products included in many award-winning projects over the years, the most recent of which include the Aspire Tower, Qatar (Kevan Shaw Lighting) and Edinburgh’s John Murray Archive lit by Nich Smith.
At Artistic Licence our products cross conventional boundaries, moving easily between rock ‘n’ roll and installation projects, and from stage lighting to architectural control. Paramount amongst these is our range of control converters which operate across the platforms of Ethernet, DALI, DMX and RDM protocols. The most notable amongst these is Art-Net which was released as an interim, royalty-free, protocol to service the industry whilst it waits for ACN to be finalised.
Feedback has always been of prime importance to Artistic Licence’s work. We believe it is not just RDM and Art-Net that offer two-way communication! It is the attendance at tradeshows and the feedback derived from our clients, the involvement in industry trends – such as our work with ESTA on the development of DMX512-A and RDM - and the direct work on installations and projects which keep the refresh rate of our product development high.
We also chose this significant year in our history to launch Artistic Licence Asia Ltd. Based in Hong Kong and headed by Simon Fraser, the new company continues to build upon our earlier successes, taking Artistic Licence project and product solutions to a wider audience in the blossoming Middle East & Asian architectural markets.
Artistic Licence Asia has evolved from a long business relationship with Fraser’s own company, Ptarmigan Consulting, which has included work on projects such as The Legend, Hong Kong, Songs of the Sea at Sentosa, Singapore and Galaxy Park, Tianjin. These projects, along with product sales in Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and China, and Dubai and Kuwait in the Middle East, highlight the tremendous rate of development in Asia and the importance of becoming involved at a relatively early and exciting stage in the region.
“We have taken a couple of years to assess the market potential and to work out how we can work together,” explains Howell. “We have decided now is the time to make it official and are very excited to have launched the company in Asia. Simon and I have a very similar, no nonsense, approach to business and the Hong Kong operation will be run in along similar lines to Artistic Licence in the UK. We will be concentrating on the two-pronged approach of product sales and projects.
“Our mission is to work closely alongside local and overseas designers throughout the whole process, acting in a guiding and advisory role to help them to find the best solutions to their project,” he continues. “With the rapid development of China and the influx of new technologies from the West to deal with, we have a lot to offer with our experience and knowledge.
“Artistic Licence Asia has four full time members of staff and a high level of resources to hand. Our track record shows we are not here to jump on the bandwagon but here for the long stay.”
And finally, as if that is not enough, twenty years after starting the company, Wayne Howell has just been added to Who’s Who!