PTY Custom Lighting

A custom lighting manufacturer was growing through relationships and great work — but had no brand that communicated what they actually did. Were they an inventory lighting company, or a custom manufacturer building bespoke fixtures for four-and-five-star hotels and high-end designers? The marketplace could not tell.

This is a seven-year partnership — the longest and deepest engagement in my consulting work. PTY Custom Lighting had the talent, the team, and the relationships. What they did not have was a brand that matched the caliber of work they were doing for four-and-five-star hotels. The repositioning was not about changing who they were — they were already servicing high-end hospitality clients. It was about making the brand reflect that reality. I directed the visual identity work, managed the graphic designer, and provided the brand strategy context around who the ICP and target audience were. The result was a color palette, typography, and imagery that positioned PTY where they belonged in the market. The content strategy was a recommendation I made that the owner ran with — showcasing the brands they have worked with, the designs, and the end results through professional video and photography. I implemented the content through a full site redesign. The Hospitality Lighting Library is the piece I am most proud of in this engagement. Built on Webflow with Memberstack for access control, it is a gated portal where designers can log in, browse 6,000+ lighting designs PTY has molds for, select options for their project, and request renderings and modifications. With 50-75 active designer logins, it has generated 10 RFQs worth $50-150K or more per project. It is a direct pipeline from inspiration to inquiry. The Airtable operations build replaced a workflow that ran on spreadsheets and email threads. The system covers production image reviews during manufacturing, timeline tracking, and activity log communications — used daily by the owner, his production team, and the director of IT who helped build it. I also launched Saucy Salsa — a sub-brand for hospitality networking events. The owner loves dancing and socializing, and he realized there was an opportunity to tie his events to bigger industry gatherings. I created the logo, brand identity, and Webflow website as a standalone destination where guests RSVP, sponsors can participate, and the events have their own presence separate from PTY. It is not a separate business — it is a relationship-building engine for the lighting company. Website traffic and LinkedIn search queries have increased roughly 35 percent — a result of both the brand work and the owner's relentless networking at industry events. The billboard now matches the handshake.