Behind the Lights: Cour Design’s Visionary Approach to Innovation, Stage, and Spectacle
Culture — 23.05.25
Stage design is visceral and immersive and often incorporates large-scale performative sculptures. Based in Nashville, Cour Design fuses technology-forward design across lighting, stage, and experience for unforgettable entertainment, installations, and live performances, including for Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, and Omar Apollo, to name a few.
We sit down with Lighting and Production Designer Jonny Kingsbury to discuss Cour’s design secrets for Clairo’s Charmed US tour and how he works his magic with such varying artists.
Thea Sun: Hi Jonny, diving straight into it…what is it about lighting and stage design that draws you in? How did you get into this?
Jonny Kingsbury: I was a tour photographer for 10 years, but I was always taking photos of the lights. And then at some point it kind of clicked in my brain where I realised I want to do the lights.
And then I taught myself everything I could after that, I was doing any band I could do lights in Nashville, locally. As I learned some of the ins and outs of it, Cour Design reached out as they’re based in Nashville and they’d seen my work, and so they were interested in expanding, and so I was one of the early designers that they brought on to join the team.
That feels very instinctive. What was the first show you worked on?
The first show that I ever did was with Imogene Strauss, who’s Clairo’s creative director, for the Immunity tour in 2019. Something just really clicked with us, and now we’re on our third Clairo tour, and we’ve also collaborated on Charli’s tour [XCX] together.
That’s amazing to have that as your first show. When working with Imogene, what is the process?
It’s been evolving for years and years. I think at this point, her and I talk almost every day, text or phone call, or whatever it may be. She usually catches wind of the idea first, and then we’d usually have a conversation with the artist and start to gather the ideas. Her and I talk through the ideas back and forth. Oftentimes, she’ll send me voice notes, and the ideas develop in that way through ‘what if we did this thing’ or ‘use this reference’. It seems like such a small way to start, but that ends up becoming the catalyst for the bigger idea.
The concept you see on stage came from a TV performance of Spanish singer Jeanette’s iconic 1974 performance. You really can see the reference. But I was like ‘Oh, man, how are we gonna do this?’ You can see the influence of the living room aesthetic to the soft lighting style to create the performance.
Yeah, it seems to take some inspiration from 70s conversation pits. I read that Clairo and her band settle into each show as if gathering in a cozy living room, sometimes sharing a drink on stage. I wondered why leaning into creating that intimate space was intentional? Especially when compared to the spectacle of shows these days, how did that feel stripping it back and being more subtle with the lighting + stage design?
The music really calls for it. It would be the wrong choice to try and go big with it. Clairo’s had most of the same band since the Immunity tour in 2019. The band’s rapport and collaboration with Claire is crucial to the live show, so I felt like the way we designed this set really sort of encouraged that intimacy that they have between each other from how long they’ve played together.
The urge for a concert to be of a big scale was something we avoided as much as we could. It wasn’t consciously kept as minimal as possible, but that was a byproduct of our goal of, when does the music require it? And oftentimes, if you’re listening to it, it doesn’t. I really wanted the lighting to match that warm energy and that nostalgic feeling. This approach encourages almost private gathering, dissolving the feeling of a performer vs an audience. It’s something special.
It definitely has a unique feel to it. What design elements did you find most challenging to bring her artistic vision to life?
I mean, the stage riser design was really challenging, given there was a lot to consider, but it would also be the most rewarding. We did about six or eight sort of iterations of this design to find the right platform height, to elevate the band but keep that soft finished atmosphere whilst adding a dynamic element to the stage. Each time we presented it, we’d face another challenge. It’s too big for this stage; we’ve blocked the access to the drum kit, or we need to make sure that all the band members can be seen at one time.
So there’s a lot of a lot of different things to consider but that’s part of the design process and it really paid off because we found a really beautiful riser design that is successful at all the different levels, achieving technically what it needs to while also still looking great on these stages and, in addition to that, provides a really comfortable, cozy space for the band to play on and perform.
That stripped-back element is so unusual, and it just felt like you’ve gone to a friend’s house, and you’re just kind of there, but actually it’s a performance, and I just feel that’s quite rare in how people plan for set design. I know from productions that I’ve worked on before it’s more how to build a world but this is done really tastefully down to the small details like the soft floating lighting, it’s diffused, and you feel that warmth coming off it, but it’s very technical, almost a responsive mood ring that shifts in sync with Clairo’s music, it’s very cinematic. It’s so simple and effective.
I’m picking up on a nostalgic influence — did you touch a lot on the 60s/70s aesthetic?
I feel like we were designing eraless, even at some points I was a little worried it was gonna come off futuristic. We led with what felt right for the band, which determined the different levels they were at and how they would perform together, which helped to lead the direction. But when combined with the Jeanette reference and that feeling of being in a circle around Clairo, I see the nod to that era.
I think it’s the velvet warm fabric covering the riser and the dreamy lighting, but it feels more deconstructed…
Definitely, we did the green velvet covering for the first time for the Jimmy Fallon performance, that was the first Charmed performance for this cycle to honor the original Jeanette reference. Once we hit the US tour, we were using a projection on the backdrop of the curtain and on the risers, which shifted the colour to tan, but we also used the green one for the residences.
I see, so the design changes for different spaces, for example, Coachella, a festival of that magnitude, compared to an indoor studio, such as for the show on Jimmy Fallon?
Yes, we had a US tour design, and now we’re nearing the end of the design cycle. Sometimes there’s a tendency to try and do a new show, or generally always up the game a little bit. For us, we knew we had such a special show that we felt the most authentic act that the fans deserved was to keep it the same.
We work very collaboratively with Mike McDonald, who goes by Wiz, my associate designer. He toured with Claire on the last album cycle for Sling, rising through the ranks of tour operator, to lighting programmer, and then to my associate designer. He did a lot of the heavy lifting. And then we also worked with animator Zach Hixon. And we also had another programmer, Kai, so there are a lot of people kind of behind the scenes that fill out the sort of creative team and put that show together.
With the LA residency, there was a slightly different setup, and so the challenge became how these elements could fit onto the Coachella stage. What would translate and what would not? The main element is to reprogram the show for the different stages. For Coachella, we incorporated video and image screens on the side to consider, and so we brought in a director, Charlie Alves, and he directed the live stream. Adapting the show through using moving cameras, such as the profile of Claire while she’s singing, gave it a different energy. Ultimately, the show elevated it and expanded it for Coachella, and then obviously we had Bernie Sanders too. I feel that adding that theatrical element makes it a live performance that merges a theatre show with moving images.
The green one, we also did the residencies. When Claire started this touring cycle, she did, like, a residency in LA and a residency in New York. Those shows were in smaller venues and much more intimate, and we could go for a more opulent vibe, but I think the tan ones are everyone’s favorite now.
Stay up-to-date with Cour Design’s visual storytelling with various artists through their website and Instagram.