Meet Tyler Lambert-Perkins and Tyler Glover | Lighting Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tyler Lambert-Perkins and Tyler Glover and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tyler and Tyler, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business together?
We began this process as a dream back in 2015 when we were working together for a lighting design firm in San Diego – Nautilus Entertainment Design (NED). Working for NED was an incredible opportunity because we grew in our lighting skills across the board – from architectural work to corporate work and beyond – but eventually we wanted to specialize more in live entertainment and events, so we decided to make the leap into the LA entertainment market as Shutter Cut Lighting Design. Owning our own business has certainly come with more challenges, responsibilities, and uncertainty than working for a firm – but starting our own business has allowed us flexibility to grow our own professional goals and pursue our professional interests more passionately. Overall, it has been incredibly gratifying.

What should our readers know about your business?
As a business we aim to be the people you actually want to work with, and I think that’s been the biggest factor in our success. We try to bring a lot of joy, creativity, and enthusiasm to a project, we want to leave the drama to the performers. Our goal is to be exceptional partners in creating a client’s vision, and we want everyone to feel heard, supported, and feel like we all actually did the best we could do.

We show up as our best selves, even when the days are hard. In fact, that’s when you need that little extra bit of lightness on a project most! Skill and knowledge are of course factors, but there’s also a lot of difficult personalities out there who can do a project well, but it’ll be painful getting there. That’s not us. We think the interpersonal connections and relationships we build are what sets a great designer apart.

We’ve learned a lot along our journey, making the jump away from our previous full-time jobs has been the biggest risk either of us has ever taken, but we made that leap with eyes wide open to the risks and realities and we knew that this business would take a ton of hard work and determination. It still continues to be a risky business model – we incorporated officially in February 2020, so our first year of business brought more surprises and uncertainty than we could’ve been prepared for in Entertainment. Our line of work can and will feel precarious at times – COVID lockdowns, writers strikes, recessions, and other world events we haven’t encountered yet all play a large part in the ebbs and flows of this industry. We used to joke about this, we both love to ride our bikes, and early on we said our business was just best friends who rode bikes on weekdays. Ultimately though what we’ve learned is that you’ve got to be exceptional at what you do – you can’t phone it in. Having a supportive and creative business partner in each other has helped us both to grow and adapt in ways that have made our business successful. You’ve got to be willing to put your whole self into this career. That and it never helps keep a diverse portfolio of clients and being open to trying something new – the more you work across industries, the more risk you can absorb as the markets change.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
With a city like LA where do you start? There’s obviously the multitude of world-class restaurants, and we may be partial, but a night at the Hollywood Bowl is always sure to impress. But something we both really value about Los Angeles is the diversity of environments. Depending on the season we’re either spending our off days going for a hike in the mountains, or a bike ride along the beach.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We have many amazing people to thank, but most recently and notably our late mentor Robin Gray. We’ve in fact have recently been able to prioritize budgeting for a fledgling internship program which was a dream of ours and Robin’s – the Robin Gray Lighting Design Internship Program. The goal of this program is to help give underrepresented students pursuing lighting design some on-the-ground experience as designers and more practical tools before they graduate. Lighting design is a niche field in a lot of ways, and so breaking in is difficult – especially if you don’t have connections already in place.

Website: https://www.shuttercutdesign.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shuttercutlighting/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shuttercutdesign/