Maine Craft Portland’s holiday windows by Cynthia Thompson

In support of the nonprofit Maine Craft Association, Cindy created (pro bono) a three-window installation entitled First Light: Solstice for Maine Craft Portland, the organization's gallery in Portland.

A custom built fabric structure luminaire designed by Planeta Design Group with Transformit for the Montaje Apartments, Somerville, Massachusetts was named a finalist by CODAworx for the 2018 CODAawards. The lighting fixture features aluminum extrusion frames, stretch mesh, and stretch fabric printed with images from the site's era as an assembly plant for Ford Motor Company.

The sculptural luminary pictured in the photo is This Little Light of Mine, the signature piece at the center of the newly opened Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. This Little Light of Mine is a big deal for Transformit.

We were hired to build and install This Little Light of Mine and it was an honor to contribute to this museum celebrating Mississippi's civil rights movement, a movement that changed the nation. Plus, this project, with its artistic intent, myriad of technical integrations within a fabric structure, and design and installation challenges, was an exceptionally good creative fit for our company.

We are often asked by event producers and designers if the pieces in our Ready-made collections are available for rent.

Yes, indeed they are!

Our rental shop walls are lined with our inventory of more than 2,000 fabric pieces, stored in our signature goldenrod-colored custom bags. It's quite the sight. 

All of the designs in Transformit's Ready-made collections are available for rental.

Transformit has been a member of the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), a member-driven trade association representing the global industrial fabrics industry, for over 25 years. The IFAI's International Achievement Awards (IAA) are an annual competition with a goal to promote awareness of the specialty fabrics used in thousands of products and applications. For more than 70 years, the awards have recognized innovation, technical skill and design excellence. Entries are judged by industry experts, editors, architects, educators and design professionals who were selected for their knowledge in particular field of study or product area.

Event producers the world over are good at gathering people together. But once together, what’s an event producer to do if they also need small rooms for private meetings and don’t have many options? Gemma Godfrey of The Whitfield Group (www.whitfield.bm), an event company based in Bermuda, got in touch with us recently to share how Transformit’s Lyrics and Lotus Leaves helped her meet just such a need for one of their clients.

There’s nothing quite like telling a story on the big screen. It’s the visual artists of the Art Directors Guild (ADG) who, in consultation primarily with the director, create and develop the overall look, visual atmosphere, and emotion that move the story. Fittingly, when the members of the ADG gather for their own awards show, the ADG’s Excellence in Production Design Awards, they want a stage design that speaks “Hollywood.”

Several years ago we did a really fun project with the Newport Aquarium in Newport, Kentucky. They were renovating the viewing theater for their giant shark-tank, Shark Ray Bay, and invited Transformit to create a fabric surround to frame the large acryllic window into the tank. I like to think our designers were channelling their inner Neptune when they framed the tank window with a dynamic "splash."

When the aquarium was designing their latest exhibit, Stingray Hideaway, they wanted an overhead shade structure that tied in thematically to the exhibit. We were delighted when the Newport Aquarium called us to work with them again and collaborate on their idea. For Stingray Hideaway we created a custom fabric sculpture of sixteen Cownose Rays swimming in a school overhead. Each ray measures six feet long by eight feet wide and one foot tall, the completed piece is 34’ long by 29’ wide by 10’ high and its installation overhead rises from 15’ to 25’ above the floor.

When HiKu Productions, producer of Variety British Columbia’s live eight-hour Show of Hearts Telethon, was developing a new set design for the telethon, they turned to Loungeworks, Transformit’s partner in Vancouver, to help realize their vision.

“This year we changed set designs after 18 years, and wanted to go with a modern design that was flexible and adaptable to the different show components we were working with,” noted Scott Hinde of HiKu Productions. “The Transformit pieces allowed us to change the look and feel quickly and effectively during our eight-hour non-stop broadcast.”

LumenARRT!

It’s not a typo, nor a misspelling. Lumen is a measure of light. ARRT stands for Artists’ Rapid Response Team.

LumenARRT! is a project (projection!) of the Portland, Maine based Artists’ Rapid Response Team in collaboration with the Union of Maine Visual Artists (UMVA) to advocate for artists and further the work of progressive non-profits in the state of Maine. LumenARRT! projects strong, clear, artistic images and messages addressing current issues at outdoor public events in Maine.