Lucio Ferreira, Creative Manager of Italian agency Newtonlab, recently masterminded the creative aspects to the world launch of Pirelli’s new high performance tyre range, on the roads of Portugal and at the historic Estoril racing circuit. Newtonlab developed all the architectural solutions needed to organise the interior spaces together with its Creative Manager; the reception, meeting, conference, lounge, exhibition and product presentation show areas all required creative and technical cohesion.
Newtonlab gave the task of illuminating the various areas assigned to guests and international press representatives to LD Giovanni Pinna. Clay Paky’s Sharpy lights featured heavily, with 50 of the fixtures providing a wall of light behind the main attractions.
The audience arrived, aboard three helicopters, at the foot of a black cube built in the middle of an installation designed and built specifically for the occasion. The corporate programme of the convention and the show itself, which started with a dance number, were held inside this black tensile-structure cube.
At the end of four minutes of dance the enormous LED screen backdrop was lifted by an automated motorized system to reveal the race circuit and three cars: a Pagani Huayra BC, a McLaren 570S and a Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Pirelli Edition.
While the interior spaces were subtly and elegantly illuminated, the main aim of the lighting design outdoors was to create two minutes of intensely bright, saturated colours. In preparation for this, the drivers worked with the Clay Paky Sharpys for ten days before the event, explaining: “Driving in a sea of blinding light was not easy!”