David Boose, owner of Spectrum Lighting needed to create the look of illuminated onyx in an architectural lighting sconce. He challenged our visual solutions group at Photomation to make it look real in the day and elegantly illuminated at night.  The end result also needed to survive outdoors with exposure to sun and rain.

After the onyx was photographed, Photomation’s creative imaging team ran design tests to get the stone image to look deep in the day and to glow at night.  The solution was a double layer printing and mounting technique, five layers in all, that created the right look of onyx on a thin sheet of translucent acrylic.  Spectrum Lighting then took the faux onyx, rolled it into a half-tube shape and inserted it into their lighting fixture.  We think you will agree, it was a bright idea.