Nederlands 
English 'The name?! The name remains untouched!' That was my initial reaction...
ONEEIGHTYONE
15 years ago, when I started our company and everything mainly revolved around renting out disco lights for parties, the name was the last thing I was worried about. Sure, we had a name, but it came about casually during a night of Google search and a dip into one of my English dictionaries.
The words 'Design' and 'Invention' came up and the combination of the two appealed to me.
InventDesign, perfectly fitted our core business at the time: the technical design of lighting solutions.
The more our company developed and our passion for creating complete LED installations ourselves grew, the more the name took on the meaning that I had chosen intuitively. But in addition to our successful innovations and unique designs, there was also enough confusion surrounding our name over the years. 'Invent' was quickly confused with 'event' and 'design' aroused the expectation that we were lighting designers, while we mainly concerned ourselves with the technical side and less with the artistic aspect of design. Of course, our lighting is also used during events, but we mainly operate in the field of architecture, catering, and retail. In addition, there are plenty of names that are more striking, smarter, more expressive, or more inspiring. And honestly, InventDesign was neither of those.
Time for a new name…? Alright then!
Thus began our exciting and large-scale re-branding adventure. And as long as we are innovating, things had to radically change, I thought! After several fanatical brainstorming sessions with hundreds of ideas and at least as many post-its, we naturally arrived at the topic of: 'colors'. Here our heads and hearts immediately started racing, because color is everything for us! Color is at the heart of what we do. Without color, there’s no life and without life, there’s no experience.
Color code 181 came to mind. The number of a color filter that we always used in the party lighting we rented out 15 years ago. A deep blue-purple color that brought exactly the experience and atmosphere we wanted to create with our lighting. But also a color that, ironically, is one of the hardest to create with LED light. A quality that fits exactly with the challenging character of the lighting solutions we develop today.
OneEightyOne was born! A name that not only sounds good and triggers curiosity, it also carries enough technical connotations to appeal to the lighting specialists within our network. But above all, it’s a name that is profoundly different. Radically different from where we come from.
A name that has guts! And guts are essential to our evolution. Because we want to grow further and transition from LED specialist to a dynamic LED producer. Grow into a committed producer who radiates quality and inventiveness. Less the supplier of parts and more the total solution, that is our story.
And this new leap is going to help us achieve that. Help to build a strong brand with which we can distinguish ourselves. With a visual appearance that provides atmosphere and experience. After all, atmosphere is our business and we want this specialty, this passion, to be reflected in everything we do and share. With a logo that is formed from this vision. Friendly, accessible, and with a strong digital character that connects to the power of modern technology and digital light.
Our tone is also changing and we are proud of our new manifesto, that fully embraces our unlimited passion and ambitions about light: Lightly obsessed with light, and we want everyone to know!
We live for light and work day and night to create the best and most innovative lighting solutions for you! And with our creative customizations, easily applicable plug & play solutions and our extensive range of selected and self-developed smart LED products, we always offer the right light for the best possible experience!
OneEightyOne is here and it’s with pride and so much joy that I say:
Welcome to the OneEightyOne Family!
See you soon!
Sincerely,
Stefan
