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The Gatecrasher lion, so symbolic of the brand's glory days, may have hung up its glow sticks and laid down in the ashes of the Sheffield club, but Gatecrasher has reared its head once again - now a very different beast - and come back bigger and bolder than ever before with international nightclub designers Bigtime Design Studios.
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The Miami-based designer is responsible for envisioning some of the most famous nightclubs in the world, developing an empire based on offering people a good time. His award-winning concepts have earned him the reputation of being one of the most significant nightclub designers in history and it's no coincidence why - his resume is impressive to say the least. His chain of crobar nightclubs around the world and the legendary Rain Nightclub in South Beach are among his most notable and breathtaking concepts.
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(Birmingham) - An interview with Callin Fortis, founder of US-based Bigtime Design, on his conceptual design for the new £5 million Gatecrasher Birmingham.
Callin Fortis, founder of Bigtime Design, is an internationally acclaimed designer famed for big nightclub projects that impress even the A-list celebrities. Known for designing and branding the award-winning series of Crobar nightclubs in the US, Cal has now cast his conceptual creativity towards the new Gatecrasher Birmingham. He explains why this 'modern day Coliseum' is amongst his best projects to date and defines the notion of 'the sociology of good design'.
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Uninspired by the UK's club design, Simon looked abroad and instantly became excited
by the work of renowned US nightclub designer Cal Fortis of BigTime Design. Cal is
responsible for the award-winning-designs, best interior design, best renovation - of the
world's famous clubs including Crobar New York, Crobar Chicago, and the Cameo Theater in Miami. His clubs have revered the world over with fans including Paris Hilton, Harrison Ford, Lenny Kravitz, Cameron Diaz and George Clooney to name a few.
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Gatecrasher enlisted the expertise of designers Big Time Design headed up by Cal Fortis. Cal is responsible for the award winning designs, best interior design, best renovation - of the world's most famous clubs including Crobar New York, Crobar Chicago, and the Cameo Theater in Miami.
His clubs are revered the world over with fans including Paris Hilton, Harrison Ford, Lenny Kravitz, Cameron Diaz, George Clooney, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Moby, Matthew McConaughey and Tommy Hilfiger.
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Raine believes that clubbers these days want a variety of entertainment presented in the most technologically advanced way possible. To this end, Gatecrasher has spent £5million and hired famed American club designer Cal Fortis, the man behind the Crobar venues in New York and Miami, to transform The Works complex on Broad Street. The 2,500-capacity venue has been split into four rooms full of features such as an LED wall, giant mirrorball and top-of-the-range sound and lighting systems based on an aesthetic described as Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas meets Blade Runner.
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Gatecrasher have enlisted the expertise of designers Big Time Design, headed up by a legendary nightclub designer Callin Fortis, to create the ultimate Miami style club experience, devised in Ibiza, designed in New York and built in Birmingham.
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As the duo behind international clubhouse Crobar, Ken Smith and Cal Fortis are a power team. Fortis creates the ambiance and Smith keeps the customers happy. |
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Designer, nightlife impresario and Bigtime co-founder Callin Fortis primarily known for the nightclub design and branding of the international and award-winning brand of Crobar nightclubs, BTDs is combining fashion, music, branding and architecture into one package with new company Bigtime Design.
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Designer, nightlife impresario and Big Time founder Callin Fortis - primarily known for designing and branding the international and award-winning brand of Crobar night-clubs - is combining fashion, music, branding and architecture into one package with new company Big Time Design. |
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Big Time Design wins the Best Nightclub Renovation and gets nominated for Best Nightclub Interior Design for their work on Cameo Miami.
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The iPod of nightlife might not be the perfect analogy, but it certainly matches the type of brand recognition crobar enjoys. The anticipation with which the industry awaits creators Ken Smith and Callin Fortis' next move puts the duo on top of our list.
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Cameo is the brainchild of Callin Fortis, club owner and designer (BigTime Design Studios), and, with his business partner, Ken Smith, the force behind the Crobar clubs in Chicago, New York and Miami.
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With Cameo, Chicago kingpin Callin Fortis undid his crobar creation and remade it in the likeness of the Palladium of the past. Picture Wright retrofitting the insides of Burnham & Root’s Rookery while dancing to a “dirty disco” beat. It’s the hallowed hollowing of a classic core to make way for a whole new modernity, a keen that not only knows history, but knows how to make it. |
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The start of 2007 saw a new venue, Cameo, join the competitive Miami club scene. A replacement for the popular Crobar club, it is a collaboration between two of the cities most successful operators, Louis Puig; (of, among others, Space club) and the Crobar team of Ken Smith and Cal Fortis. This union came about because Ken and Cal had been very busy franchising Crobar worldwide and had very little time to spend in Miami. |
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“It’s going to happen,” says designer Cal Fortis, who is sitting in a small office in the Cameo Theatre, chain-smoking Marlboro Light 100s, talking about his attempt to remake his world-famous crobar nightclub, of which he is a part owner, into a whole new nightclub that looks as little like his previous one as possible. “Everyone is going to compare it to crobar. It’s inevitable,” he says, exhaling a long stream of smoke into the air. |
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When asked what his favorite aspect of his job is, Crobar brand Co-owner and Co-creator Ken Smith says nothing of mingling with celebrities, rubbing elbows with the greatest DJ talent on earth or knowing that his brand is on the verge of becoming internationally established. “The people,” he says. “It is different every night, but I always know that 1 am going to meet someone who is going to make me laugh.” Completed by the other half of the brand creation, Callin Fortis, the duo’s at-titude is pervasive throughout the Crobar philosophy in all three locations, Chicago (1992), Miami (1999) and New York (2003). |
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There is sociology to good nightclub design. How people move through space while they are dancing is critical. Because New York is one of the biggest melting pots in the world, we felt the way we would generate the most excitement was to create a metaphorical melting pot on the dance floor. With the design I attempted to encourage the “user” or patron to forgo his/her social boundaries while experiencing crobar. |
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Callin Fortis and Lionel Ohayan, December 2003 crobar is one of a crop of new superclubs that have been unleashed on New Yorkers over the past couple of years. Like many of the other venues, it is located in Manhattan’s destination du soir. Chelsea, and is the third crobar to emerge in the US, with sister clubs in Chicago and Miami, all owned by Callin Fortis and Ken Smith, crobar follows in the nightclub tradition of being forged from a reclaimed industrial warehouse space, andis apparently the first large-scale venue to be built from virgin property in New York in over a decade. |
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Perched on the edge of Lake Michigan, America’s third largest city has long been famous for its modern architecture, raucous character and tumultuous history. Chicago’s hippest and most fashionable restaurants, bars and lounges are profiled in this handy little guide. |
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