Blog - Page 10 of 22 - Light Can Help You

GEAR TALK: Low Voltage Lighting

An illustration of an astronaut in a flying saucer with a glass dome. The top speech bubble reads "We come from the FUTURE..." and the bottom bubble reads "to bring you LOW VOLTAGE lighting." The words FUTURE and LOW VOLTAGE are bold and red. The astronaut looks very friendly.

My Gear Talk series is an excuse to geek out a bit while attempting to simplify some of the complex conversations we have about lighting. It is less about the theory, science, and application and more about the tools. And one of those tools has almost nothing to do with the photons themselves: voltage. We live in […]

1THING: Plug In Bedroom Lighting

A silhouetted figure reading on a bed in a bedroom. There is a ceiling fan on the ceiling and a table across the room on the other side of the image. The ceiling fan has a light. A big, bright arrow points from the light to the face of the figure. White text near the light reads "this light can hurt you" and points with a thin, white arrow to the ceiling fan light. Script text below the image reads "How to make a bedroom more comfortable..."

When it comes to plug-in lighting upgrades in the bedroom, the bedside table lamp is a runaway favorite. Both useful and ubiquitous, this staple of decorative lighting needs no introduction. And devoting an entire blog post to them might be considered a waste of time. That means I will probably write about bedside lamps someday, […]

THINK LIGHT: I wanna new (light) drug.

Illustrated diagram with two rows. Row one: medicine bottle green arrow to mouth green arrow to brain green arrow to silhouette figure thinking "I feel better!" Row two: light bulb green arrow to eye green arrow to brain green arrow to silhouette figure thinking "I feel better." Script at the bottom of the graphic states "light is a drug."

After more than twenty years in the lighting profession it is tempting to think I know it all. The truth, of course, is that I possess but a tiny fraction of the collected knowledge of light- and our body of understanding is growing much faster than I can learn. Let me give you an example. […]

1THING: New Build Bedrooms

An illustrated depiction of a bedroom featuring a bed fit for two, two lamps on either side, and a ceiling fan. Script text at the bottom reads "Lamps are great...but usually not enough."

I am having fun with both 1THING series, and this week’s post on bedrooms is no exception. I am pretty good at overcomplicating things, so the mental gymnastics of forcing myself to make a single choice is proving to be good exercise. Plus, I think I might quit my job so I can just sketch and doodle […]

What is Lighting Design?

On the left, there is a light switch connected to two light fixtures by a wire. All three items have a red tag with a white $ indicating that this is an affordable setup. On the right, there is the same setup with slight variations on details, making the items more elegant. The red tags on these show two and three $ indicating that it is more expensive. Below the left section, text reads in quotation marks "regular lighting." The text below the right section reads in quotation marks "lighting design."

“What do you do for a living?” inquired my seat mate on a recent flight. “I am a lighting designer,” I replied. [BLANK STARE] Explaining my job is, well, difficult at best. If people have any awareness of lighting design, it likely falls into the sentiments displayed in the image above. Our lighting plans, so […]

GEAR TALK: COB Tape Light

An illustration of four different types of COB tape types and the wiring that goes inside them.

Just about two and a half years ago I saw my first sample of COB tape light and I bet my jaw literally dropped. Tape light- a generic name for flexible linear LED strips- is a key tool in our quest for good lighting. We use it just about everywhere, and that makes us a […]

1THING: Plug In Bathroom Lighting

HOW TO GET NIGHTLIGHTS TO BE THE RIGHT LIGHTS. Next to a red arrow pointing up: light going this way shines in our eyes disrupting our sleep Next to a green arrow pointing down: light going this way shines on the floor making it safer

It is particularly difficult to change lighting in a bathroom without hiring an electrician. Most baths are filled with tubs, showers, toilets, and vanities that leave little to no room for tables and lamps. And plug-in lamps near a tub are a bad idea from a safety perspective – electricity near water is a time-honored […]

Exposure: A Better Bath

A photograph of small circular lighting fixtures in a shower stall.

In the fourth and final SMART LIGHTING SERIES video from Wipliance, Lee and I take a quick bathroom break to explore the Light Can Help You approach to lighting. We push back against common trends like downlights over the sink and vanity lights over the mirror to deliver a better experience. We also use a […]

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THINK LIGHT: Color Temperature

An illustration of a camera recording a lightbulb on a monitor. The lightbulb is yellow, but is depicted as green on the monitor. Text below reads "Why Choosing Color Temperature is Hard"

A few years ago I wrote a pulp piece for Houzz.com on how to choose the “right” color temperature of light. At the time there were just a few choices homeowners faced with lighting: choose 2700°K warm white, 3000°K not-quite-as-warm light, or perhaps 3500°K “neutral” white or 4000°K cool light. I recommended 2700°K for traditional […]

Exposure: The Dallas Kitchen

A photograph of an illuminated kitchen with a small island.

Lee Travis and his team from Wipliance released their third video shot in the ProSource Lighting Technology and Learning Center in Dallas, Texas! Lee and I discuss layered lighting in kitchens in this short video. We designed the Learning Center to share good lighting with others, and I am thrilled with this shoot join […]

Light in the Stone/Digital Age