OUR INNOVATIVE OFFICE LIGHTBOX SOLUTION
When our team settled on the location for our corporate headquarters in Franklin Park, IL we were thrilled with the amount of square footage and height the building offered. However, this “perfect” space came with very limited natural lighting – and a concrete block structure that we did not want to even attempt to add windows to.
Our environmental graphic designers huddled up with R&D to look at ways to brighten up the space and add a little nature to our front office. After a few rounds of iteration and budget reviews we settled on the idea of running lightboxes under the existing transom windows to leverage the existing architecture in the space.
The next challenge was what type of lighting to use. We knew immediately we wanted dimmable lights, and that our perfect solution would match the color temperature of natural light. If we could simulate daylight in our lightboxes, we could create a softer mood in the space. We had a solution in development that met this specification and worked with our 100mm thick ADA compliant extrusion. It was decided, the final installation would be multiple Control LED wall-mounted office lightboxes at size 72” wide x 318” tall, which meant we needed to find art for the backlit SEG graphic.
We knew at this scale that we needed to shoot or source high-resolution photography. Luckily our dye-sublimated backlit materials print stellar quality at 72 dpi. We reached out to a few sources and found a beautiful high-res image that harkened back to the forests of Maine, where our company’s roots are from. Not only did this provide a peaceful visual for our staff, but it also serves as a reminder to protect the natural world around us, and it was complete with some mossy stumps. Company history, brand, mission, and beauty all in one office lightbox graphic – it was a sign!
After some detailed measurements for notches around the wall conduit, collaboration with the electricians on site to create a sleek cover for the power housings, and a few other clever work arounds—our tree lightboxes came to life!
Unexpected benefit – it is always sunny in our front office. There is nothing better than walking into a sunny forest after a wintery gray Chicago commute, or a rainy midwestern day. Extra bonus—we have the perfect solution for customers that need a little extra natural light, prototyped in our very own space!
