Interview with Marc Herring, founder of Herring Media Group in Glastonbury
Q. You are credited with creating architectural media. What is it exactly?
A. Architectural Media (AM) is Herring Media’s proprietary term for the application of site-specific image magnification. Such imagery can be permanent or temporary and the installation typically feature large-scale digital video displays combined with various forms of programmed intelligent lighting. The scale and clarity of the medium communicates in a visual vernacular and directly connects with the public by informing and entertaining. It is a way to bring buildings to life.
Q. You recently participated in FotoWeek DC. What was your role? Can you describe the installations?
A. It has been my pleasure to design and produce the Night Gallery program during FotoWeek DC for the last three years. The work features large-scale displays of photography collections from various cultural institutions, photographers, visual artists and the public. I collaborate with a number of landmark properties that include The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Newseum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Corcoran Gallery of Art & Design and many more. As part of the showing, we were honored to produce an installation for the recent re-opening of the National Museum of American History, which featured a massive display of ten 50′ x 50′ digital video projections across the south facade on the National Mall. I’ve also illuminated the facades of M Street in Georgetown and erected a temporary installation in Dupont Circle. Today I’m continuing to develop exhibitions in the nation’s capital for art, architecture and advocacy advertising.
Q. What made you pursue this career and what steps did you take to achieve prominence in it? Just having a good idea does not always translate into huge sales.
A. I studied theatrical lighting and production design at the University of Texas at Austin and launched a career that quickly expanded to include the major disciplines in the communications arts. To combine these interests and talents, I began to integrate various forms of multimedia displays into large-scale visual installations that were adopted by international marketers in the early ’90’s. My group moved in-house with what was then the world’s largest advertising agency network and gained access to significant opportunities to support strategic branding and tactical advertising assignments. I established the medium in the Out of Home category with the leading OOH provider and launched the first North American network of Projection Media installations using billboards as variable messaging screens. Our work was the precursor to what is today LED billboards and remains an alternative multiple messaging format. When I first introduced the idea of using LED illumination or projection on billboards, the industry was still hand painting bulletins and working with paper and paste. Over the last 10 – 15 years the medium has exploded into a ubiquitous expectation of our contemporary culture. Digital imaging is everywhere.
Q. What’s the value in getting a company’s logo on the side of a building? Does it compel people to action or is it more of a branding exercise?
A. Architectural Media creates value by establishing a lasting impression and emotional connection with the public. One that is cinematic and heroic. AM is indeed a strategic branding tool best used to focus, leverage and improve an image or inform an audience. Also, and perhaps most important, the visual nature of the medium traverses the limitations of cultural, linguistic and literacy barriers – at a glance. The medium can be deployed as a temporary network in support of announcements, event based programming, or public information awareness including civic emergencies.
Q. What type of investment is a company looking at to have this done? How expensive is it to maintain?
A. It varies. It all depends on the type of installation and length of programming. It could be done for a day, a week, a few months or it could be permanent. It is not inexpensive but this type of installation always provides a compelling, high-impact experience in which the brand is powerfully expressed.
Q. You were involved in lighting up Bushnell Park for the holidays. Have you done others things in Greater Hartford that people might be aware of?
A. HMG and many other participating production companies and equipment suppliers assembled the landscape illumination of Bushnell Park for the holidays. In past I’ve illuminated the Wadsworth for a gala event that was well received and a lot of fun to do! The projection installation featured the display of surrealist masterworks on the exterior architecture. I also participated in a previous Festival of Light program on Constitution Plaza several years ago. And for fun I’ve illuminated several private events that allowed a certain creative flexibility. I especially enjoyed lighting a local corn field this past summer.
