Orchard Light Tables

Light Tables & Light Boxes from Orchard

In your standard run-of-the-mill site office or drawing office, you have many things in common; Professionals doing their best to deal with reams of large A0, A1 and A2 paper. Storing it, filing it, archiving it, retrieving it and, above all, looking at it. 

At Orchard, we have worked closely with the front line professionals for over 25 years - people who deal with these paper management challenges daily. We have used this to continuously improve and develop our products to better meet the real demands placed on them in the workplace.

We Know What You Need

We know what you require from a light box or light table. From on site contractors to architects, designers and photographers. We provide the very best range of lighting equipment to let you get on with scrutinising, finishing, tracing and reviewing plans or images. 

Consistent light distribution and accurate colour reproduction comes as standard on all our light boxes, giving you a backlit table you can rely on, and as a manufacturer we can modify any of our light tables or light boxes to meet specific requirements.

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Orchard New Website

Every 18 months or so we like to give our website a good old facelift, but this year we decided to pull out the stops and completely revamp it from the ground up. 

We were focused on providing a better user experience - giving people the information they wanted right when they wanted it. With such a diverse product range of drawing equipment, paper storage systems and light boxes the challenge of producing all the extra content was immense. 

We hope that you like the results as the new Orchard website is by far the most comprehensive insight into what we do and a great ambassador for the Orchard brand (which from an in-house production you'd hope so!)

CHECK OUT TheBigOrchard.com

Make sure you'll following us on all the usual channels too for all the latest chat:

www.facebook.com/TheBigOrchard
www.youtube.com/TheBigOrchard
www.twitter.com/TheBigOrchard

Wakefield Art Culture

WAKEFIELD CULTURE 

(historically an oxymoron)

Don't get me wrong, Wakefield has always been nice enough; sat in the heart of Yorkshire, surrounded by mining towns and countryside. Despite all that, it has always been the case that when someone asks where I'm from, I say 'Leeds'. Not just because most of the country knows where Leeds is, but because Wakefield has always been in its shadow, with nothing particularly to put it on the map.

However, in recent years the 'generic northern town (actually a city)' brush it has been tarnished with, has started to be shaken. The Hepworth Gallery, built in tribute to the world famous sculptor Barbra Hepworth, has made art and design enthusiasts all over the country stand up and take notice, with impressive foot-fall since it was opened over a year ago.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

In turn the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (just outside Wakefield) has also seen renewed interest. The Park has always been well renowned for showcasing the county's best modern sculptors with inside and outside exhibitions. Championing Hepworth pieces has always been natural for the YSP, with a large collection of it's own.

At Orchard, we have been lucky. Situated where we are, if it wasn't for a few trees and a Homebase, we would be able to see the Hepworth in all it's glory from our office window.

Why not tie your visit to the Hepworth in with a quick coffee at Orchard. 

We can talk you through and demo any of our drawing boards, paper storage systems, light boxes or retail display equipment. We'll let you park here with only a 5 minute stroll down to the Hepworth! Perfect for a cultured day out in Wakefield .... near Leeds.

LED Light Tables - The Future is bright

Light Tables and LED Light Boxes

Design constraints always exist with light tables, but maybe the outlook is a little different. Typically the technology to create a large back-lit light table has always revolved around standard florescent tubes which provide the intensity and colour requirements for detailed design and plan review work.

ORCHARD have now developed the perfect LED light box solution which allows professional light boxes to be manufactured in almost any size or shape. A0, A1, A2 and A3 light boxes are obviously match the standard paper sizes for most design, art or photography applications, but our LED system allows our designers to think outside the box when developing a new light table - make the light area large enough to meet requirement, but why stop there?

The modern design studio is always looking to impress clients and create an inspirational environment for its employees. These types of breakthrough designs where practical viewing equipment is combined with stylish, designed and refined furniture provide the best of both worlds.

From minimalist to extravagant, Orchard can develop the right light table for the requirement.

Enlighten me please.

There are some super slim light panels around, but when it comes down to how good they are, application is everything. Generally speaking there are two different types of light box:

LED light boxes
LED's provide the light. You can get both back lit and side / edge lit light boxes. The main advantage of this type of light box is that whiteness of the light can be regulated by the specification of tube you fit into them. Typically 5500k is classed as colour corrected which means that if you are trying to reproduce specific colour shades / tones, the light from the tubes will not distort what you can measure.


LED lit also produce a greater intensity of light which penetrates through paper up to 450gsm. It makes them the only sensible choice for designers or artist who are  looking for a tracing light box and really scrutinise the details in their work.




LED lit light boxes 
If you are looking to display artwork on an illuminated light panel then LED will be much more suitable. Designed for high efficiency and constant use they are a great way to catch the eye of a potential customer. However, without the light intensity of the tube lit light boxes, your artwork needs producing on a clear film / acetate.

There are LED light panels on the market which have been designed for simple tracing work, but if you don't have the right tool for the job it can leave you wanting.

Although there are slim light boxes available for design work, if you go too thin you end up with something which can only really be used for display purposes. Designers really benefit from the colour corrected light; something which you don't get from LED light panels so be wary when choosing a light box - make sure it's fit for purpose.

Euro Shop Exhibition Dusseldorf

One key event on the display systems calendar was earlier this year at the Euroshop Trade Fair in Dusseldorf, Germany. Companies from all over the world came together to show off their innovations and concepts in the world of product placement.

If you were prepared to walk around all the 20+ halls which make up Messe, you could find a display system for pretty much any application.

Orchard were over there for 3 days helping out the lads at Tecnostyl who had a prime spot display stand right in the entrance to one of the main halls.

Quite a noticeable proportion of the weird and wonderful creations people had devised involved 3D in one form or another.

Depth perspective when presenting products on screen or virtually seems to be the in-thing; providing a novelty factor which draws a crowd if nothing else. I guess the whole point is to get people looking at your product, 3D makes that almost too easy.

Failing 3D, good old fashioned illumination is always a crowd-pleaser. LED poster displays were pretty much everywhere and you had to admit they were effective - guiding your eyes and telling a story at the same time.

Even though none were like the artistic light boxes used for photography or tracing they still pack a visual punch with colourful printed acetate graphics.