This story starts with a “Wait… did you just see that?” moment, at a music festival with a coloring book, an LED light, and a small crowd of strangers who couldn’t look away.

Before Colorimetry Lights was a brand, before there were patents, products, or a global customer base, there was just an experience.

Miles and his business partner, Nick, were at a festival flipping through a coloring book while shining an LED poi light over it. As the light shifted, so did the colors on the page. And people started gathering. Not just casually glancing. Stopping, watching, asking questions. Then chasing them down after the festival to experience it again. That’s when it clicked for them: This isn’t just cool. This is something people have never seen before.

Miles took that idea back to school, tapped into every resource he could find: engineers, legal teams, patents, and started building what would eventually become Colorimetry Lights. (If you are still in college reading this: USE YOUR RESOURCES WHILE YOU HAVE THEM!)

By 2017, AJ was brought in. By 2019, they launched publicly. And from there? It took off.

To kill the illusion real quick, “Taking off” didn’t mean overnight success. It meant: Two years of product development. Turning an LED board into a physical product. Building relationships with artists. Testing everything in real-time at festivals. And then, just as momentum was building in 2020, as many of these interviews have gone…COVID hit. And like a lot of businesses rooted in live events, Colorimetry had to pivot.

Originally, Colorimetry Lights was built around festivals. That was the strategy. Until it stopped making sense. AJ broke it down in a way more business owners need to hear: “You can sell $25,000 at a festival… and still walk away breaking even.” Between travel, inventory, staffing, and unpredictable factors like weather (shoutout to the 16 hours of lost sales due to rain), the margins just weren’t there anymore. So they made a decision most people avoid for way too long: They shifted their entire business model.

From: Festival vending + product sales To: Online business + immersive installations.

And that one move, changed everything.

Here’s the part that should wake you up if you’re “kind of” showing up online: AJ said it took 5 years to reach 5,000 followers. Less than 1 year to jump from 5,000 → 80,000 followers once they shifted to an online presence. Now Colorimetry is sitting at nearly 300,000 across all platforms.

Same business. Same product. Different focus. AJ said it best: “If I could go back, I would’ve focused on online sooner.” At its core, Colorimetry Lights creates light-reactive art experiences. Their flagship product, the Colorizer, is a handheld light that transforms artwork in real time. But what makes them different? They didn’t stop at selling a product. They built an experience.

Picture this: A 30x30 inflatable installation. Fully blacked-out interior. 40+ canvases glowing and shifting under specialized light. Music, aromatherapy, lasers, every sense activated. You walk in. You experience it. You leave. No pressure to buy. Just impact. And honestly? That’s the brand!

But running a business isn’t just creative freedom and cool moments. It’s also giving up a lot of your personal time, constantly reinvesting money back into the business, dealing with unexpected expenses (like broken vans and blown transmissions), figuring things out while you’re scaling.

Even when you are making money, you’re often putting it right back in. And that whole “you won’t be profitable for years” advice? AJ’s take: “You will make money. You just won’t keep it right away. Because growth costs.”

Despite all of it, there are moments that make it hit:

Returning to a festival that changed your life… as a business owner.
Showcasing your product at massive events like EDC Las Vegas.
Watching a fireworks show from your booth and calling it “work”.
Shipping orders to places like Japan, Norway, and Australia.

But the biggest moment? Building a platform where artists grow with you. What started as working with strangers has turned into collaborating with friends. And that shift, from transactional to relational, is where things get real.

When I asked what AJ wishes more people understood about business, his answer was simple: “There’s room for everyone.” Read that again. Because the reality is, a lot of people operate from scarcity. Holding onto “secrets,” avoiding collaboration, watching others instead of working with them. But the businesses that grow? They share. They collaborate. They build together.

If AJ could go back, he’d say: “Start building online earlier. Don’t rely on one revenue stream. Put energy where the growth actually is. And stop waiting to shift when something clearly isn’t working.”

And if you think they’re done evolving, no shot. Colorimetry is currently building a kids product line designed to:

Teach color theory
Encourage hands-on creativity
Blend technology with real-world art

Because the goal isn’t just to sell. It’s to create something that sticks.

This business didn’t come from a perfectly mapped-out strategy. It came from curiosity, experimentation, and actually paying attention when something clicked. So if you’re sitting on an idea, waiting for it to feel “ready”, it won’t. But it might be worth testing anyway. Because the next thing you build? Might just start with someone saying: “Wait… what is that?”

Interested in buying one of these insanely cool coloring books? Or maybe just wanting to follow the journey of Colorimetry? Links here:

https://www.colorimetrylights.com/

https://www.instagram.com/colorimetrylights

https://www.facebook.com/colorimetrylights