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Backes & Strauss are an English company that have been designing and producing high-end luxury timepieces and jewellery for over 225 years. Originally founded in 1789 it is the world’s oldest diamond company. London has played home to the company's headquarters and since the 19th century Backes & Strauss have continued to draw heavily on the London heritage as a key source of inspiration.
In 1814 The Backes & Strauss group had offices in Mayfair, these offices no longer exist but their London presence does. In early 2015 The House of Backes & Strauss opened on Grosvenor Street in London, the company's first exclusive showroom.
For Backes & Strauss creating such intricate works of jewellery is not easy, it takes a passion for creating unique and high quality pieces alongside the handcrafted skill to create jewels of brilliance and complex perfection. It’s vital therefore that not only do they work in the best conditions but that their products are shown in the best environments. Lighting can dramatically affect the look and feel of an environment, so much so that the new Backes & Strauss, Grosvenor Street stores lighting was an important factor to consider before it opened.
Backes & Strauss wanted LED lighting, believing the LED technology had several advantages over fluorescent systems, and started a search for the best solution back in 2014. The brief was to find a dimmable energy efficient LED lighting solution.
Illuma’s in house lighting designers put forward several lighting design proposals, exploring a range of possible solutions that could help Backes & Strauss achieve their desired effects. ‘We wanted to create a lighting scheme that would provide the right ceiling accent light but at the same time be powerful enough to compliment and accentuate the brands merchandise without making them looking flat’ - Kate Morley, Lighting Designer at Illuma said.
The installed lighting layout is relatively simple. 42 x Project 85 LED 2’s and 90 x Project 95 LED 2’s have been used to populate the stores ceilings across two floors. The downlights are positioned to ensure that everything in the store is lit using the LED colour temperature 840.
Clusters of downlights have been used around the perimeter of the store to highlight display cabinets and seating areas, this helps create a dramatic, high contrast environment. Two of Illuma’s emergency fittings were installed in the scheme including 25 x Emlux Discrete’s and 5 x Emlux Sign’s.
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