So much of our modern lives is digital that we scarcely stumble across the archaic digital versus analog debate. No one uses an abacus in high school math class. Finding a land line to make a phone call is increasingly difficult. Clacking typewriters have given way to silent computers. Some of us wear watches that […]
*Why TASK, AMBIENT, and ACCENT should retire and make room for the next generation. We all know people who stayed in positions of authority a little too long, folks who maybe served well in their prime but lately just seem to be preventing those with ideas and energy and enthusiasm from making much-needed positive changes. […]
It is time to retire your light switches and dimmers…if you want to get the full benefits of good light back into your life. Get them back? Yes, you and I lost out on natural light’s benefits when our ancestors decided houses were better than tents and offices were better than fields. They moved indoors, […]
And…it’s a wrap. Two full years of writing for the residential focus in designing lighting comes to a conclusion with this month’s Simplify, Simplify article. This is a beautiful magazine full of great projects and important voices, and it has been a huge honor to be a part of it. I hope to return someday, when I […]
A few weeks ago I got to geek out a bit with some lighting colleagues during dinner, a rare treat for someone who works mostly remotely. My Zoom conversations are almost always task-oriented, designed to accomplish something and then move on to the next one, and that makes unscripted, unmeasured, non-billable communication somewhat unusual- and […]
I continue to explore the overlap of lighting business and lighting language in the April/May 2024 issue of designing lighting in an article on light, values, and stories. The article is based on writing from the blog, but each time I circle back to the same topic I make new discoveries and find new ways to think and […]
It is no big secret that I love light and enjoy finding new ways to deliver it to our lives. As a professional lighting designer, I spend a good deal of energy dreaming up solutions to everyday challenges and spend time regularly learning about new products and new techniques. There is plenty of discovery in […]
Yesterday I saw a LinkedIn post from another lighting designer featuring a photograph of a hallway under construction, with three parallel ceiling joists running down the hall. Each was filled with a round duct for heat and air conditioning. There was no explanation; there need not be. One look and I understand the pain: there […]
History and literature are full of great tales of adventurers seeking the unattainable. There is the quest for the Holy Grail (“We’ve already got one.”), the search for the fountain of life (find it or die trying), and the hunt for Blackbeard’s treasure (he spent it on rum, I think). Right up there with the […]
Lighting designers could help builders…if we can change our ways. Residential builders are often the most reluctant of the major stakeholders to support custom lighting design, and with very good reason. In a previous post, I meandered through the overlapping territories of lighting and building and thought about how lighting design is often a threat to […]