THEO Strip × Tangerine Dreams | Bespoke Lens Design
Lens Art® Interpretation — THEO Strip, Neon Collection
Sometimes a Lens Art commission begins with a lens.
This one began with someone else's glasses.
Our client was introduced to The Optical Gallery after seeing eyewear we had created for another client. What struck her wasn't simply that she liked the glasses. It was how completely they seemed to belong to the person wearing them.
They weren't disappearing into the face.
They were part of her.
For those of us surrounded by independent eyewear every day, frames from THEO and other avant-garde designers can begin to feel almost familiar. But we're regularly reminded that, for someone encountering this world for the first time, eyewear can suddenly become something entirely different.
That discovery is one of our favourite parts of what we do.
The Frame — THEO Strip
The starting point was the THEO Strip from the Neon Collection.
Fluorescent orange. Electric pink. Sculptural lines. Unmistakably THEO.
THEO has always understood that colour doesn't need to be decorative. It can form part of the architecture of a frame.
Strip already had enormous personality, so the temptation could have been to leave the lenses quiet and allow the frame to do all the talking.
We saw it differently.
The right lenses could complete the composition.
The Lens Art Interpretation
Once our client began exploring what was possible with lenses, the conversation changed.
We weren't simply choosing a tint.
We were asking:
What should this eyewear feel like to look through?
That distinction matters.
Lens colour exists on both sides of the eyewear. Other people experience the colour from the outside, but the wearer experiences an altered visual environment through it.
For this commission, we wanted warmth.
Not an aggressive orange filter. Not a conventional sunglass brown.
Something uplifting.
The result was one of our in-house Lens Art colour recipes:
OG Tangerine Dreams
An amber-to-orange graduated tint, designed specifically to interact with the fluorescent orange and pink of the THEO frame.
When our client first looked through it, she described the experience beautifully:
“It feels like I'm on summer holiday.”
That became the best explanation of Tangerine Dreams.
Warmth enters the scene. Colours feel richer. Contrast changes. The environment takes on a sunlit quality without the lens feeling overwhelmingly dark.
The colour isn't there simply because it matches the frame.
It changes the experience of wearing it.
From Tangerine to Something Else
But Tangerine Dreams is only the starting state.
We paired the custom gradient with Dinamica photochromic technology.
Expose the lenses to UV and another colour story begins.
The warm amber starts to deepen. Orange moves towards blood orange and red before developing into a rich rosy pink.
And suddenly the relationship between frame and lens changes again.
The pink elements of the THEO become more pronounced. The orange remains connected to the warmer areas of the lens, while the activated photochromic colour introduces an entirely new depth.
It almost feels as though the frame was designed around the lens.
Indoors and outdoors therefore aren't simply lighter and darker versions of the same eyewear.
They are two interpretations of it.
The Visual Experience
There is another part of this commission that photographs cannot properly communicate.
What it feels like to look through.
At its lighter state, Tangerine Dreams creates a warm, uplifting visual environment that our client found comfortable enough for everyday use.
The graduated construction keeps the lower portion lighter while retaining more colour through the upper lens.
As Dinamica activates outdoors, the visual environment becomes more shaded and saturated while retaining the warmth that defined the original concept.
The transformation therefore serves both sides of Lens Art:
how the eyewear looks, and how the world looks through it.
The Finishing Detail
We completed the lenses with our Glamour anti-reflective coating.
Coatings are often discussed entirely in technical terms, but within Lens Art they can also form part of the aesthetic decision.
Here, we wanted a finish that complemented the warmth and energy of the colour rather than fighting against it.
Every element needed to belong to the same composition.
The Lens Art Specification
Frame: THEO Strip — Neon Collection
Lens Design: Prescription lenses
Lens Art Colour: OG Tangerine Dreams
Tint: Bespoke amber/orange gradient
Photochromic: Dinamica
Activated Character: Blood orange / red / rosy pink
Coating: Glamour anti-reflective
Purpose: Everyday wear, driving, outdoor adaptation and personal expression
The Interpretation
What makes this commission special isn't simply that it is colourful.
It is the progression.
A client saw somebody wearing eyewear differently.
That introduced her to THEO.
THEO introduced her to colour.
And then Lens Art introduced the possibility that the lenses themselves could become part of the design.
The frame didn't need calming down.
It needed completing.
THEO Strip × OG Tangerine Dreams × Dinamica
A pair of glasses that begins with fluorescent orange and pink, looks through the world with the warmth of a summer afternoon, and transforms again when it steps outside.
That is the interpretation.
