By James Simpson
Like many in the industry, I watched the origins of beam fixtures with a little scepticism. A light that only does one thing? How contrary to the fashion of
the time to squeeze so much into a light you wonder if it will sing you a song too. How wrong I was. What was so profound about Claypaky’s innovation of the
Sharpy was the impact it was going to have on design for the next decade. Beam
looks and aerial effects were suddenly the new fashion, and other manufacturers had to scramble to join the party.
Claypaky continued to iterate its original design, going brighter, sharper and more
feature-rich. But the term ‘Sharpy’ was so entrenched in the lexicon of the lighting
industry that it found it hard to move the industry on from the original and best. People asked for ‘Sharpys’ in the way people ask for Hoovers, even when the thing in front of them may have come from somewhere else entirely. That is an enviable position, but also a difficult one. Reinvent a product like that too timidly, and it looks like nostalgia. Reinvent it too aggressively, and you risk losing the exact thing
people liked in the first place.
Instead of building a new product in the Sharpy’s image, the company has instead gone back to the original and created ‘Sharpy 2.0’. It’s everything we love about the original, but built for 2026 and beyond.
Read the full review in Lighting & Sound International magazine
claypaky.it
Australian Distributor: Show Technology showtech.com.au
