Set Designer of the Year

Winner: Ray Winkler

Born in Indonesia in 1967, Ray began his working life as a carpenter and has been working as an entertainment architect/designer at Stufish (a.k.a. The Mark Fisher Studio) since 1997. “It was supposed to be a six-week stint,” he says. “But I’m still here!”

In that time, Ray has designed sets for countless live TV shows, including MTV Icons, the MTV Movie Awards, the EMAs in Edinburgh, Rome, Lisbon and Copenhagen, the BRIT Awards in London and the NFL Super Bowl’s Half-Time Show in Detroit.

He has also worked on tours for U2, The Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, Take That and Muse, and designed shows for Johnny Hallyday and Cirque du Soleil, and multimedia spectacles for Jean Michel Jarre at the Great Pyramids in Giza and at the Acropolis. In 2007, Ray undertook the worldwide design of the nine Live Earth stages, and more recently completed a multimedia outdoor show for Universal Studios Japan which opened in Osaka last spring 2008.

Last year also saw Ray involved as the production designer of the 2012 London Olympic Handover Ceremony at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

Runners up:

Mark Fisher • Bart Clement • Vince Foster • Bill Laslett • Alan Chesters