WILLIE WILLIAMS

Posted by Kev Darton

Award-winning stage designer and multimedia artist Willie Williams has designed tours for some of the biggest names in music, working with the likes of David Bowie, George Michael and the Rolling Stones. However he is perhaps best known for his work with U2.

He began designing for the band in in 1982 when he was 23 years old and over the next 30 years he has designed every tour since. And as the band’s popularity has grown, so have Williams’s stage and lighting designs.

Getting bigger…

…and bigger…

…and bigger.

He is often the first to employ new and emerging technologies in order to give audiences something they have never seen before. On this scale these are expensive risks, and are possible in no small part due to his long-lasting and trusting working relationship with the band who ultimately foot the bill.

I think this is a great example to young designers of the importance of working with and supporting new clients and start-ups (and the recent controversy over on the CR blog caused by the Start-up Britain website launch only serves to underline the importance designers place on building relationships with fledgling businesses). Do good work and take the opportunity to grow and learn with them. They may be small-time now, but who knows where they (and you) will be in 30 years time?

Posted on Sunday, April 10th, 2011 at 5:00 pm by Kev Darton. Filed under DESIGN, TECHNOLOGY. Follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.