Creative Day Technologies is delighted to welcome to our team, Ross Zhang. Ross will be our Lighting Department Head, where he will be in charge of managing and expanding Creative Day’s lighting offerings. He will be assessing our various show's lighting needs and how to best implement the gear and design for the best client and audience experience.
Ross discovered the industry and started working full-time at a Michigan lighting company while still in high school and since hasn’t stopped doing lighting for shows in almost 20 years. He took all opportunities possible while full-time for the first five years in the industry, learning all aspects of the lighting industry from managing a crew, prepping and fixing the gear, to programming and designing a show.
Ross left Michigan to join the freelance world in New York City and to pursue an engineering degree to expand his knowledge into the deeper technical aspects at play. There he experienced a dozen or so years working the countless frenetic and glamorous New York City shows, honing his skills and raising his place in the ranks of the freelance pool.
The pace, the scale, and the scope of the shows in New York is hard to understand without being caught in that grind. “It was a fun challenge to move to New York and start at the bottom again, and the sweat spent clawing my way to the top gives me a certain experience you can only get from doing a large show almost every day for months at a time,” says Ross.
As with all New York stories, there's a time to move on, and as the challenge dimmed, Ross looked for a new way to grow and expand. Creative Day has utilized Ross on many projects, bringing him on as often as possible.
“His work ethic and creativity always impressed our clients and staff,” says Dave Gillis, Creative Day COO.
Ross’s courage and adventurous spirit have always been a part of his experiences. In service of his search for new cultures, Ross has spent many months abroad with only a book and a change of clothes. “The sublime quietude of navigating the backroads of the world allows a
meditative introspection that is hard to find in the modern world, and I'm proud of how skilled I am at navigating such foreign societies without the use of written or spoken language,” says Ross. There's a warranted pride that comes with making your way through Cambodia or Herzegovina crammed into the local's minibusses with some kid or chicken shoved on your lap.
Although chickens are rarely a factor on show-site, Ross will be handed a heap of responsibility to improve on and build up what used to be Creative Day’s sparsest department. “I believe that Creative Day can become a truly artful and revered production company by elevating our client's ideas and creative direction with our own insight and knowledge, as well as our own artistic expertise,” says Ross,
“I'm quite eager to explore new ideas and see what interesting concepts I can collaborate on with our clients. The skill and artistry that I personally, as well as our whole team at Creative Day, can bring to their own creative vision is what drives me in my passion for events.”
Collaboration in design and ideas elevate the art that we create to greater heights; by coming together with all of our passions we can make an event truly unique and groundbreaking. That idea excites and propels Ross and the Creative Day Team, ushering us all forward in our work more than any other motivating factor.
Ross embraces all the passion Creative Day nurtures for live event professionals, as such is a welcomed and fitting addition to our team.