Gel Desk

A gel desk is the central place in a theater to store, organize, and prepare lighting gel color and other lighting accessories such as gobos.
At the desk, prior to each show, the electricians will gather the gel needed for the show, cut it to size, label, and place it in gel frames. After the show the gel is sorted back into the file cabinets for future use.

The gel desk area may consists of:

• Desk: to sort and prepare gel
• Paper cutter: to cut gel
• File cabinets: 1 drawer per brand with color sorted by number and size
• Roll storage: shelves or tubes arranged to store uncut rolls of gel. Typically sorted by brand
• Gel frame storage: sorted by size
• Accessory storage: shelves or drawers to keep the accesories
• Wax pencil: to write the first letter of the brand and the gel number on every piece of gel. For example L161 or R68

An example of a gel file drawer. Notice how each color has a hanging folder and each size has a manilla folder inside.

A gel desk at George Mason University. Rolls are under the desk. Gel frames are in the cubbies above.