Pinwheel-shaped panels for backdrops

Tom McPhillips of Atomic Design, Lititz, Pa., became fascinated with the pinwheel shape while staging a Japanese music festival for his rental display and stage fabrication company. “It’s such a fantastic dimensional shape, both simple and complex at once,” says McPhillips. His absorption has now emerged as a modular Pinwheel Panel, a two-by-two-feet square panel that ships flat and transforms into a light-reflecting textured surface for full scenic backdrops, columns, groupings or space dividers.

The Pinwheel Panel is crafted from fiberglass tubes with injection-molded corners and clips, flame-retardant spandex fabric and aluminum tubing, making it lightweight and easy to configure. The panels can be hung from a truss or ground-supported, and rent for $20 each for one week. The new product debuted at the WFX (Worship Facilities) Conference and Expo in Charlotte, N.C., in October 2009.