The Power Of Light

Max + Harry were commissioned by PHOS, to create an inspiring short film about the Power of Light for the opening of London Design Week. Not only did the company need the film to be a distillation of the company ethos, but it also needed to inspire thousands of new audience members to foster new ideas about light in their own lives.

Challenge

The mission was to discover how those innovating in their respective fields really thought about light. How they related to it personally, and most importantly, emotionally. 

Insights

Architectural lighting designers PHOS are on a mission to build a collective conscientiousness and enthusiasm for the Power of Light. 

Phos believes light is a vehicle for positive change. Whether it is natural or artificial, we interact with this magical and intangible substance in every moment of our waking life but often overlook its significance in the spaces we have created for ourselves. Its influence is frequently taken for granted and many underestimate the authority it has on our psychology and the way we feel. 

By developing original, exciting and informative content, told through the lens of some of the world’s most respected and celebrated lighting designers around the world, Phos hopes to inspire a community of fans to share the same core values. 

Solution

Max + Harry were commissioned by PHOS, to create an inspiring short film about the Power of Light for the opening of London Design Week. Not only did the company need the film to be a distillation of the company ethos, but it also needed to inspire thousands of new audience members to foster new ideas about light in their own lives. 

Over the course of 6 months, Max + Harry travelled to meet with artists, designers and craftspeople who are innovating how we not only see but experience light. Along the way, they met the designer behind the live shows of The Chemical Brothers, a pioneer of ambient communication in Sweden and an artist who installed 60,000 solar-panelled LEDs in a canyon in South Africa. 

This expansive research was distilled down into a script that would render their learnings into 90 seconds of emotive narration. This narration would accompany a kaleidoscopic palette of imagery shot across the world, and in tandem would form a feast for the senses.  

Our goal was to give audiences a heady, hypnotic experience of light in all its forms. We would see the work of designers, and the work of nature, and we would even commission a motion graphics artist to turn a human figure built from binary code into lines from Dylan Thomas — as we raged against the dying of the light in the contemporary design world.   

Results

90-second film showcasing light’s emotional impact

Featured at London Design Week as an inspiring opener

Fostered new community awareness on the significance of light