Problem: Help move Zumtobel, one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of technical lighting products, from the industrial sector into the architectural and professional lighting sectors.

Solution: Building the brand was a co-ordinated effort of communications, marketing, design and engineering. The first challenge was to embody Zumtobel’s highly evolved technology and expert knowledge in products having real significance for architects and lighting specifiers. The second challenge was to communicate the importance of these products in a way that would develop a true culture of lighting around the Zumtobel brand, taking it to a new level and a wider audience.

Products were developed that expressed new ideas about the relationship between architecture, building and light. These ideas were celebrated and communicated in a traveling exhibition entitled “Shadows”, which made its debut at the Cologne Furniture Fair in 1992.

Impact: The designs won three international design awards and helped Zumtobel rise to number two among professional lighting brands in German-speaking Europe.