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Thursday, October 21, 2021
45 Moments from 45 years at ETC
et cetera...: On Christmas eve 1975, ETC was founded, and a tale of impressive growth and expansion began. As we wrap up our 45th year in business, we thought it would be fun to look back at the moments that have made us who we are today.
4 comments:
Madeline Miller
said...
ETC is such a dominant name in theatrical lighting that it literally hadn’t occurred to me that they hadn’t been around forever. I really enjoyed learning more about the history of this massive company! I love that the ETC logo was a college art project. It contextualizes this huge corporation in an awesome start-up in a garage type of way. (Even though it was actually a start up in three garages.) That being said, this article really emphasizes that even theatrical lighting companies are, well, theatrical. I am deeply moved by the gaff-tape inspired wall decor and will be taking inspiration for my dorm room. I love that there are Ed Hopper paintings around the ETC office! And of course, the grumpy cat named Friendly seems like a perfect companion to design lighting equipment with. This article really sheds light on the community, artisanship, and humor around every part of theater, even huge institutions of lighting technology.
ETC is one of those names that has been around the industry for so long now, it's hard to realize that there was a time when there was no ETC. I love that this article is short and sweet and not dense as it could be with 45 years of history behind the company. I didn't know anything about the 'behind the scenes' part of ETC and love that there was a company grumpy cat named Friendly and a prop rat that was moved around (a trend that we often see in regional theatres). I also love the history behind their logo. I have always felt that ETC is a professional company that focused a lot on education and this article further proves it because their entire logo came from a student doing an art project. I love that even though with change in time and modernization of the logo, it still has the base design of the cross thing inside a square!
This is such a fun article to read. As a lighting person, I have seen how enormous of an impact ETC has made on the entertainment industry as a whole. From the iconic Source4 to the Eos family of consoles, ETC is at the forefront of all things theatrical lightning. In our own building in Purnell, all of the dimmers are ETC, the architectural lighting systems in the Rauh and Chosky are ETC, many of our fixtures are made by ETC, we have most of the Eos consoles, and the list goes on and on. I love how Fred Foster integrated things from his actual life into the company like the idea of the garage and how the logo was a college project. ETC is really great at incorporating really fun facts about their company into a lot of their marketing on their social media and things like that. It makes me feel like there is some sort of personal relationship between their customers and their company that is really awesome. They are truly an iconic company in our industry.
My favorite part of that article was 100% that they had a mascot cat named Friendly that was apparently, anything but. I can't imagine how small the company must have been back then for having a physically aggressive cat prowling the halls to fly. It's really surprising when you think about how giant ETC is today. I also find it funny that the picture of the cat is of it sitting behind a bottle of bloodworms which are a popular fish food. I wonder if Friendly was trying to go after someone's pet fish seconds after that was taken. I love that they took the time to make the ETC buildings not only inviting but interesting and field specific. I feel like not enough companies take the time to do this because costs can add up so quickly but creating a welcoming and, dare I say, fun environment for your employees is such a good way to boost morale and keep people comfortable in their job.
4 comments:
ETC is such a dominant name in theatrical lighting that it literally hadn’t occurred to me that they hadn’t been around forever. I really enjoyed learning more about the history of this massive company! I love that the ETC logo was a college art project. It contextualizes this huge corporation in an awesome start-up in a garage type of way. (Even though it was actually a start up in three garages.) That being said, this article really emphasizes that even theatrical lighting companies are, well, theatrical. I am deeply moved by the gaff-tape inspired wall decor and will be taking inspiration for my dorm room. I love that there are Ed Hopper paintings around the ETC office! And of course, the grumpy cat named Friendly seems like a perfect companion to design lighting equipment with. This article really sheds light on the community, artisanship, and humor around every part of theater, even huge institutions of lighting technology.
ETC is one of those names that has been around the industry for so long now, it's hard to realize that there was a time when there was no ETC. I love that this article is short and sweet and not dense as it could be with 45 years of history behind the company. I didn't know anything about the 'behind the scenes' part of ETC and love that there was a company grumpy cat named Friendly and a prop rat that was moved around (a trend that we often see in regional theatres). I also love the history behind their logo. I have always felt that ETC is a professional company that focused a lot on education and this article further proves it because their entire logo came from a student doing an art project. I love that even though with change in time and modernization of the logo, it still has the base design of the cross thing inside a square!
This is such a fun article to read. As a lighting person, I have seen how enormous of an impact ETC has made on the entertainment industry as a whole. From the iconic Source4 to the Eos family of consoles, ETC is at the forefront of all things theatrical lightning. In our own building in Purnell, all of the dimmers are ETC, the architectural lighting systems in the Rauh and Chosky are ETC, many of our fixtures are made by ETC, we have most of the Eos consoles, and the list goes on and on. I love how Fred Foster integrated things from his actual life into the company like the idea of the garage and how the logo was a college project. ETC is really great at incorporating really fun facts about their company into a lot of their marketing on their social media and things like that. It makes me feel like there is some sort of personal relationship between their customers and their company that is really awesome. They are truly an iconic company in our industry.
My favorite part of that article was 100% that they had a mascot cat named Friendly that was apparently, anything but. I can't imagine how small the company must have been back then for having a physically aggressive cat prowling the halls to fly. It's really surprising when you think about how giant ETC is today. I also find it funny that the picture of the cat is of it sitting behind a bottle of bloodworms which are a popular fish food. I wonder if Friendly was trying to go after someone's pet fish seconds after that was taken. I love that they took the time to make the ETC buildings not only inviting but interesting and field specific. I feel like not enough companies take the time to do this because costs can add up so quickly but creating a welcoming and, dare I say, fun environment for your employees is such a good way to boost morale and keep people comfortable in their job.
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