Behind the Work → Empty State

Activities: Desk research, stakeholder workshops, dealer interviews.

Success was always going to be defined by more than a commercial goal. The team behind Cameron Design House, serial award winners, know the power of industry recognition and the rewards of sustained dedication to quality.

Cameron Design House (CDH) focuses its energy on entirely bespoke, sculptural lighting, designed to be the standout piece in a grand location. But the founders knew that the same design sensibilities would resonate in a brand built to scale.

Empty State’s range of lighting is born from practicality and utility, designed to be complementary pieces. The core suite of 6 designs can be configured to create millions of variations and sell for prices well into 5 figures.

Consumers have been trained to associate flexibility with diminished quality; the wider the range, the lower the expectation. It was vital that the brand didn’t feel lost amid its fluctuations.

Born from design, the competition regularly presents their art form with elegance and sophistication. But their origins can result in restrictions: Tightly bound to their founders or diluted through the breadth of an ever-expanding range.

The industry relies on a network of dealers to act as intermediaries between manufacturers and clients, representing multiple brands. It’s essential for the business to act ‘dealer first’, developing the relationships necessary to unlock the doors to major projects, where hundreds of configurations could be sold at once.

The products are not revolutionary. But they are brilliantly executed to the finest detail – greater attention paid to application and optimisation over originality.

The dealer profile influenced the brand ID, name included. It was designed to stand out from a crowd of competitors weaving a similar story, and to translate to international markets, knowing that initial emphasis would be oriented towards major urban centres in the U.K., Western Europe & the U.S.

We dialled up the role of the engineering process – skill over effort – to protect against imitators and to highlight the attention to detail required to create a single piece, shielding the eye from any mass production.

The look & feel needed to balance function with form and fashion – confidence and soul – to avoid a sense of clinical insularity, and connect the machine-made with the hand-finished.

Photography and 3D models celebrated the minutiae, showcasing close-ups and angles rarely provided by competitors, a true fanaticism to craft. Throughout the project, we explored the choreography between bright and dark, warm and cold, first-person and distant echo.

Website navigation starts with immersion, a controlled narrative where each swipe reveals a new layer of the story. Once the user offers intent, however, the site prioritises the dealer and information provision.

Design and utility. Concept giving way to application.