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Today's Profile: Jeff Nickles, Production Design Associates
By Kristen Poland
Staff Writer
The view of from atop the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge is breathtaking. As Charleston native Jeff Nickles stood at the top of his hometown's skyline centerpiece just before its grand opening celebration in 2005, he employed his creative specialty lighting talents to treat the thousands of people looking up at the bridge from the ground to a view just as magnificent.
Nickles’ company, Production Design Associates, is one of Charleston’s most competitive full-service lighting companies. Formed in a small garage with a handful of lights, the company has gone from doing light shows for local bands and frat parties to lighting bridges, aircraft carriers and White House events.
“We (Nickles and then-partner Jerry Seay) started with an early cell phone the size of a brick and my childhood desk was in our office,” Nickles recalls of the company’s infant stage. “We just kept growing. I think people liked our enthusiasm. I never doubted what I was going to do; failure was not even an option for me. I knew my heart was in it.”
Nickles’ enthusiasm for his business was born from a passion for lighting that came from early childhood. Some of his favorite childhood memories are of playing with his Lite Brite toy and from a trip to Disney World with his parents.
“At Disney World, I spent a lot of time looking up at the lights instead of looking at the rides,” Nickles said. “So much of our life is visual and we take it for granted. Vision influences everything we see and do. Light can mold things, create a mood, create an experience; it’s something that is way underrated.”
Nickles nurtured his interest in lighting by elaborately decorating his mom’s house for Halloween and Christmas and picking up odd projects such as lighting bands at the Windjammer and doing pyrotechnics shows on the old Charleston Navy Base.
“My best friend (Seay) and I bought used equipment and we made a console that would shock us occasionally,” Nickles said. “I still can’t believe I was taking explosives onto the Navy Base in my mom’s station wagon.”
Nickles supplemented his knowledge of creative lighting with corporate experience when he spent about a year as lighting director for IVS Video Inc. in Charleston. He also studied theater at the College of Charleston, where he gained experience acting and directing, as well as with lighting. In 1991, he joined back up with Seay and the pair officially started their company and rented office space in West Ashley. Eventually, they expanded their office and hired employees. They began working corporate events in addition to music events and private parties, and also started doing sales of lighting and sounds gear as well as rentals. Nickles credits PDA’s success with its customer service and reliability, as well as its superior technical capabilities.
“People do business with people they like and people they trust. Our biggest quality is our people. Anybody can go out and buy equipment—but what sets you apart are your people’s professional qualities and personalities. We’ve built a team here that I can put up against anybody in country,” Nickles said. “Second is equipment. We spare no expense on equipment. It costs more but that’s where we want to be. Also, we have the ability to be flexible. We are very good at reacting and adapting. We don’t say no to anything, except for safety reasons.”
In 2001, PDA was awarded a contract to light President George W. Bush’s speech at The Citadel. Following that event, the White House hired PDA to follow Bush to Greenville and then to Alabama. Since then, PDA has done more than 60 jobs for the White House at locations from Pennsylvania to Florida, including six presidential balls in Washington, D.C., held in honor of Bush’s second inauguration. In addition, PDA has done lighting for national music acts, including the Dixie Chicks and Brad Paisley, as well as events for John McCain, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Rudolph Giuliani and other politicians.
Still, out of all the famous names and high-profile locations, Nickles said one of the most memorable event he’s worked on was the lighting of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. Nickels stepped out of his president’s shoes for a moment and acted as the lighting designer for the bridge project. Shots of the bridge lighting subsequently received national press and appeared in lighting trade magazines and manufacturers catalogs.
“That was one of my favorite events,” Nickles said. “I got to spend a week on the new bridge with no cars.”
Seventeen years after its start, PDA now employees more than 50 people and is located in North Charleston. Seay relocated to Florida two years ago, leaving Nickles as the sole president. The company’s future events include Bush’s upcoming speeches at Furman University and Fort Bragg. In addition, the company is working on a handful of documentaries and is looking forward to working events for the upcoming presidential election.
“One of the things I love about my job is working with creative, interesting people all over the world. We’re never really doing the same thing. One day we’re lighting the President of the United States and the next day we’re lighting a Willie Nelson concert,” Nickels said. “It’s almost like we’re getting play with toys, only instead of lighting my mom’s house, I’m lighting bridges. Of course, I still light for Halloween and Christmas. I have a big party; it’s still a big event. Some things never change.”
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