Marc Raymond, chairman & CEO of Epic Production Technologies, along with David Johnson, associate publisher/content director for Live Design, has announced that Epic will be sponsoring three major Lighting Design awards to be given at the LDI2009 Awards Ceremony.
The newly created Redden Award for Excellence in Lighting Design was named in honor of the late Craig Redden who was a vice president at Epic at the time of his sudden passing in 2008. Redden began his career in 1978 when he stopped into a newly opened rental shop then called Westsun Media and formed an immediate friendship with company founder Marc Raymond who later invited Redden to join the company full-time. After years of prepping, touring, and teching every kind of event, Redden took on a well-earned senior management role at what had become Westsun International.
In 2002, Redden joined Raymond in the newly formed Q1 Production Technologies as Vice President Rentals where he focused on US and International business development. When the company merged with Ed & Ted’s Excellent Lighting to form Epic Production Technologies in the fall of 2008, Redden was looking forward to new and exciting challenges including a move with his family to California.
In a statement Raymond said that he had spent considerable time contemplating the most significant way he could honor his long-time friend and colleague and keep Redden’s name and spirit alive within the industry that he had loved so much: “Craig worked his way up through every aspect of the touring industry to become the best account rep in the business. He especially admired the great lighting designers he worked with and ultimately understood that the essence of a successful lighting company was its ability to make sure that each designer’s vision could be fully realized. We are so pleased that through our friends at Live Design and LDI we have this opportunity to show how much we appreciated Craig and how much he appreciated the art of lighting design.”
According to Johnson, the 2009 Redden Award for Excellence will be given in three separate design categories: Concert, Theatre, and Corporate/Event Lighting. Recipients will be chosen by the editors of Live Design, and the awards will be presented at the LDI Awards ceremony on Saturday, November 21 at 6:00pm on the LDI show floor.