I recently wrapped up my year of writing for Technology Designer, an elegant quarterly publication that also featured my stories on baths, living in place, and linear lighting. I was given an open invitation to share my final thoughts for design professionals to finish the series.
I returned to one of the most common questions we hear from prospective clients and trade partners. “Why do I need you if I already have a lighting design on my plans?”
That statement contains the most simple but devastating of errors. It assumes that circles on a plan, often drawn in by a builder or junior architect, constitute a lighting design. Quite simply, if all you have is circles on a plan, then all you have is an under-educated guess of how to get the minimal amount of light needed into your home to vacuum the floor.
That is called a layout. Lighting designs can only be done by, well, lighting designers.