Lumafi Wants to Kickstart Your Creativity
Standing out from the crowd at an Insomniac event is no easy task—especially when you’re competing with stilt walkers, contortionists, girls dressed in full butterfly regalia, and some of the most creative DIY fans in the world—but Matt Gerpheide has found a way to make himself shine. Literally.
If you haven’t run into Matt before, he’s the dude that’s always decked out in full LED gear. Sometimes he’s a superhero, sometimes he’s a light-up Luigi, and sometimes he’s just Mr. Lumafi—his own illuminated creation, complete with glowing gloves, shoes, hats and accessories. If you’ve watched some of our more recent episodes of Golf Cart Confessions, it’s Matt’s handiwork that makes our carts look so fancy.
Matt, along with his partner Phuoc Nguyen, are the minds behind Lumafi, a company that’s just released its first product, the Versa Prima. A portable, flexible, Bluetooth-enabled, battery-powered LED strip (with app compatibility), the Versa Prima is essentially the building block that Matt uses in all his creations. You can connect strands together like Christmas lights, but unlike Christmas lights, you can actually cut strands down at every notch, thanks to the product’s flexible printed circuit boards. Sound like something you want to own? Then today’s your lucky day.
Lumafi has a Kickstarter campaign up and running and they need your support. We checked in with Phuoc and Matt to get a little more insight on their company, their product, and how they plan to amp up your creativity.
What inspired you guys to create the company, and this product in particular?
Phuoc: Matt started adding light to his festival attire about three years ago to try something new but that he thought would look cool. What he wasn’t planning on was the massive amount of positive attention and energy that he received from fellow festivalgoers. Many people inquired about where to buy the LED lights, but the reason they had never seen anything like this before was because it was all hand-soldered and individually wired together. Understanding the struggle to make these lights come to life, Matt wanted everyone to be able to empower their creativity and feel the joy and excitement it brings to others. I already had business experience with LEDs, and together with Matt’s love for art, we immediately recognized a need for the product. From there, we set off to make an LED light strip that empowers creatives.
Talk to me about some of those interactions with ravers. You’re such a big hit at our events, and people are always chatting you up.
Matt: It’s incredible how friendly and accepting the rave community truly is. People are drawn to the lights, and I love that they are comfortable enough to come up and talk to me. Seeing their excitement puts a great big smile on my face! I am a really shy guy, but with such an amazing and supportive atmosphere around me, I finally feel comfortable with who I am. Anytime that we attend an event, we are instantly greeted by other festivalgoers and continually asked for pictures so that we can capture at least one still memory of the fun times we had together throughout the night. We have met people from all walks of life. One of my best rave friends is 51 years old, and you would never know it by looking at him. Several of the people we have met at raves, we have also brought on as Lumafi team members. On top of all that, we have even been able to help you guys shine just a little bit brighter through the night with our LEDs on your golf carts for Golf Cart Confessions. It’s been a wonderful and rewarding relationship thus far.
How did you guys fall in love with dance music? Was there an event or an album or an artist that was the catalyst behind it all?
Matt: Ever since I heard Daft Punk as a kid, I knew that dance music resonated with me. It just clicked and felt as if I’d found my own theme music that matches who I am as a person. I grew up in a very small town and didn’t have any avenues to enjoy dance music socially with others. It wasn’t until 2009—when I went to my first rave, EDC—that my life took a drastic turn. I showed up to EDC in a nice, collared shirt and designer jeans without a clue of what to expect. What I found turned out to be my paradise. Entering and walking down the Coliseum steps, I felt as if I had stepped into another world. I was blown away at the scenery setup, everyone’s creative outfits, the amazing eccentric performers, and of course the music. I asked myself, “Why have I been missing this my whole life?” I felt as if I was home. Throughout the night, I saw many different creative and unique outfits, and it really inspired me to be more creative for the future. I realized that this wasn’t a society of people who judge you or force you to be a certain way, but a community that encourages you to express yourself and allow yourself to embody your own look. This is what really pushed me to come out of my shell and start making things that I thought were cool and unique.
I see you guys at all our shows, but we’ve also run into each other at Comic-Con. How have other communities and people embraced Lumafi?
Matt: We were recently introduced into the cosplay and Comic-Con world this summer. It’s surprising how closely the cosplay community and the rave community mirror each other. We have only been to a handful of cosplay conventions, and we already feel like we have made a thousand new friends. Everyone’s creativity and masterful works of art are on a whole other level. You can tell everyone really works hard on their creations, and in turn they all really respect each other. The entire cosplay community embodies peace, love, unity and respect; it’s just not verbally mentioned. Incredibly enough, we hadn’t run into anyone who uses a lot of portable LED lights in any of their cosplay creations. We stood out very brightly, and because of it, we were able to talk to a lot of new people and were instantly welcomed in and felt part of the community. I was astonished and hadn’t felt like that since my first rave; once again, a lot of people were asking where they could buy some of the LED lights. This just furthered our inspiration that portable LEDs need to exist and there needs to be an easy-to-use light medium that allow others to empower their creativity and bring their unique creations to life.
Now on to the product. Will anyone be able to afford these, or will they be really expensive?
Phuoc: The benefit of having a small team is that we have very low overhead costs, which allow us to introduce the product to our initial supporters at a heavily reduced cost. We are not doing this to make a quick buck; we are doing this to allow others to be creative and stand out and feel the joy and excitement of being creative, and then making people happy with your creation. This has inspired us to release the product on Kickstarter for the lowest price possible, while still allowing the funding to cover the setup costs.
How can these light strands be cut and/or extended? Is it like Velcro tape? I mean, we’re talking about electronics here. Doesn’t cutting into a strand of lights usually end badly?
Matt: The product is a kit that provides all of the components and accessories the user needs to use a LED strip in many versatile ways. Everything is powered by a compact and rechargeable lithium ion battery. It utilizes USB ports and is recharged by the same wall charger that you use for your smartphone. However, the power source can be swapped to any power source with a USB: battery, wall outlet, charger, computer, etc. The controller operates via a Bluetooth low-energy signal and allows you to control the color, brightness, and pattern of the LED strips with the ease of a smartphone app. The LED strip comes with USB ends so that it can be easily extended, and it is strengthened and sealed with our proprietary techniques.
Additionally, due to the design, you can cut the strip after every LED due to the flexible printed circuit board. The LED strip has a Velcro backing that allows it to be attached and removed from another piece of Velcro. While the LED strip is designed to endure the durability demands to survive a night of raving, we wanted it to be removable so that you can use it for other activities, such as a light-up dog collar or accent lighting in your room. We also include a variety of accessories that further increase how the LED strip and other components can be used and attached. Everything has been designed with ease of use in mind and to allow others to empower their creativity.
Click here to help fund Lumafi’s Kickstarter campaign.
