Who am I?

Kevan Shaw BSc(Hons), ELDA, IALD MSLL
Design Director
Kevan Shaw was born and educated in Edinburgh, Scotland. He Graduated from Loughborough University of Technology with a BSc(Hons) in Economic and Technological History and Social Psychology, despite this he took up a career in lighting. Initially he worked as a lighting designer for rock bands including Jethro Tull, Ultravox, XTC and Steve Hackett to name a few. During this period he lived in London and developed an interest in photography, exhibiting in Edinburgh in December 1983 and participating in a group exhibition in 1986. He also achieved a Licentiateship of the Royal Photographic Society. In 1985 he forsake life on the road to realise some long standing ideas in lighting effects equipment, developing a theatrical lighting effects system for D.H.A. Lighting in London. At this time his lighting design work was more in T.V. and Video including ETC a live music series for Channel 4 and The World Music Video Awards for MTV. He also developed a number of architectural and exhibition lighting schemes at D.H.A., the most outrageous of which was the creation of an erupting volcano in front of the Mirage Hotel, Las Vegas, using light, flame, water and steam. In 1989 Kevan returned to his native town of Edinburgh to practise as a Lighting Designer in the architectural and exhibition area establishing Kevan Shaw Lighting Design. He has also created a number of light sculptures exhibiting with Malcolm Innes at the St Andrews Festival in 1993, and the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh in 1992, 1993 and 1994. Kevan was also part of the group who collaborated to produce ” Life on the Rock “, a light, projection and sound installation in the Tron Kirk in Edinburgh as part of the 1995 Photofeis Festival. In 1998 he created two light sculptures for the “Viagem au Seculo XX” in Lisbon. Despite this apparently serious career development Kevan can still occasionally be persuaded to design and operate the odd Rock and Roll show, theatre show or anything else that allows him to escape from the office for a few days every year! Kevan is a full corporate member of the ELDA (European Lighting Designers Association) and IALD (International Association of Lighting Designers) where he is on the membership committee. He is also a Member of the Society of Light and Lighting.

kevan

Kevan Shaw BSc(Hons), PLDA, IALD MSLL

Design Director of KSLD

Kevan Shaw BSc, PLDA, IALD, MSLL is a lighting designer born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland. He came to light as a teenager playing with a Pollock’s toy theatre brought to the house by John L Patterson for his father , the artist Sax Shaw to help design an exhibition. He set off aiming for a career as a curator of Industrial Archeology for which he studied Economic and Technological History and Social Psychology at Loughborough University in the early 1970’s While at university he became involved with stage lighting. On graduating he could not get any work in museums, however was offered the chance to tour with the band “Love Affair”

Work with the band lasted as long as the band’s van engine after this died he took a job as trainee building services engineer with Max Fordham and partners. During this period he learned a great deal about building services however rejection for membership by      CIBSE led to departure from Max Fordham’s.

Kevan then sought more work in stage lighting working for Showlites and Alderham manufacturing early systemised Rock and Roll lighting equipment and became a touring trouble shooter. He took the first ever lighting rig with Socapex connectors, Multicore cables, Thomas Truss, Thomas par cans  and Alderham lighting controls on tour in 1978. This formed the basis of what has become the standard equipment in the industry today.

He was made a job offer he couldn’t refuse by RDE lighting and became a regular touring Lighting Designer working with bands including Steve Hackett, XTC, Ultravox, The Real Thing, Simple Minds, Roxy Music and Jethro Tull among many others.

In 1984 kevan sought new challenges working with DHA Lighting. These included the design for the DHA Animation Disk system and Gobo Rotators. He carried on with lighting design in Industrial shows and television including MTV’s World Music Video Awards and E.C.T., a live heavy metal show for Channel 4. He also acted as assistant to David Hersey on a couple of West end shows. He returned to the road for another Jethro Tull tour in 1987 and on his return to DHA took up the challenge as project designer for a live volcano at the Mirage in Las Vegas.

In 1989 he returned to his home city of Edinburgh and established Kevan Shaw Lighting Design to pursue architectural and exhibition projects. His work has been intentionally varied in scale, type and location. Early projects include “The House for an Art Lover” a realisation of a Charles Rennie Mackintosh competition design in Glasgow. He has spread his lighting design influence abroad and has projects in California, Oregon, Kuwait, Qatar and Singapore and retains an interest in stage lighting through occasional projects including short tours with Jethro Tull.

He has a significant reputation as an expert in Museum Lighting. In addition to many projects he has contributed to books on exhibition design and project management. He is  currently Chairman of the group responsible for re writing the CIBSE/SLL Lighting Guide 8 on Museum and Gallery Lighting and his articles on this subject are cited in many educational programs

Kevan is active in the development of the lighting design profession and has been on the membership committee of the IALD. He has also held the position of Membership Reporter for ELDA. Currently he is Director of Sustainability for the Professional Lighting Designer’s Association and Chairman of the committee drafting LG8 Museum and Gallery Lighting for the Society of Light and Lighting. He has also held teaching positions on the Master of Architectural Lighting at Hoschule Wismar and Interior Architecture at Napier University Edinburgh.

In his role as Director of sustainability for PLDA he is active in challenging the proposed legislation to ban incandescent lamps. He has also become an authority on the use of LEDs in architectural lighting with frequent invitations to speak at conferences throughout the world.

Lighting Design Awards:

The St. Mungo Museum, Highly Commended in the LIF awards,
The River and Rowing Museum Commended in the National Lighting Awards,
The Public Institute for Social Security, Kuwait, Middle East Lighting Awards, Public Building Category
Royal Bank of Scotland World Headquarters, Landscape, Commended in the National Lighting Awards
Aspire Tower, Doha, Middle East Lighting Awards, Winner Exterior category, Highly Commended Public Buildings.
ThePublic, West Bromwich, Lighting Awards, Winner Public Buildings category

Notable Projects:

The Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. RIBA Regional Award, Civic Trust Award, EAA Silver medal
The Hub, Edinburgh Festival Centre.  EAA Bronze Medal
Barcelona Nord Bus Station, The Design Awards
Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, RIBA Regional Award, Civic Trust Award
Scottish Poetry Library, RIBA Regional Award, Civic Trust Award, EAA Silver Medal
Rick’s Hotel, Edinburgh, Conde Naste Traveller: Top 25 Hotels In the World
Manchester Museum, RIBA Regional Award
The Radisson SAS Hotel, Glasgow. European Hotel of the Year, Glasgow Hotel of the Year, Scottish Business Hotel of the Year, RIAI Special Award
The Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London
The Queen’s Gallery Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh

Education activities:

Napier University, part time temporary lecturer in Lighting Design
Hoschule Wismar, Visiting lecturer for Masteers of Lighting design Course
ELDA and PLDA Educational Workshops,Voklingen, Alingsas, Lyon, Liverpool
Teacher’s TV The technology programme: Design for life = The colour of emotion

Lectures and papers:

Lux Europa 2001
Light Focus 2000, 2001, 2008
Lightfair 1999, 2005, 2008
Lux Pacifica 2005
LED Conference 2005, 2006
Architect’s Journal Conference 2007
Guangzhou Lighting Exhibition 2007
PLD-C convention 2007
Interiors Forum Scotland 2008
Light Symposium Wismar 2008
Institute of Lighting Engineers 2004, 2008
Illumination Engineering Society of Australia and New Zealand 2008
Ecobuild 2009
Green Lighting Event, Frankfurt 2009

Publications:

Contributor to Design Project Management; Griff Boyle, Ashgate Publishing 2003
Contributor to The Manual of Museum Exhibitions ; Lord&Lord, Altamira Press 2002
Contributor to Light for Art’s Sake; Christopher Cuttle Butterworth Heineman 2007