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Light in the Stone/Digital Age

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 […]

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Time Zooms By

Three people's video feeds in a Zoom meeting on a computer screen

Whew. It’s been hard to find time to blog the past few months. I can blame that on the pandemic, but that is only partially true. I’ll blame it on Zoom instead. Our design team is spread across three time zones and six states, and we rely on remote communication tools like Zoom for continual […]

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The Future of Shades?

A close up on strange, futuristic window shades on a window

Simply put, we need natural light to be happy and healthy.  We need lots of it in the mornings to wake up, plenty mid-day to keep us going, and a soft tapering at night to relax us towards sleep. The best source of natural light is…well…nature.  But sunshine comes with a few drawbacks, such as […]

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Bedrooms: Beyond Sleeping

An illustration of a bedroom with lighting dos on the left and lighting donts on the right.

We have a certain number of formulas for illuminating a bedroom. We layer in lighting to deliver our five promises of light in these rooms just as we would anywhere else in the home. The solutions are different in a bedroom than in a kitchen because the function and form of each space is vastly […]

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Time Marches On

The cover of TIME magazine with Martin Luther King, Jr. on the cover with the words "His Legacy: The Fight for Equality"

A career in lighting design can lead to some unusual experiences like living on a cruise ship in dry dock or spending the night in a shopping mall in Las Vegas. Every once in awhile, the experience opens your eyes. Just before the pandemic shut down our society, TIME opened THE MARCH at Chicago’s Dusable […]

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We All Age In Place

A winter view from the shore of one of the lakes near Madison, WI.

I made plans to write on this topic months before the world changed underneath us. Back then, Living in Place was an emerging term that encapsulated a myriad of design ideas intended to help us live better lives without having to change locations. Comfort, accessibility, safety, and wellness all fit within the term. Age in […]

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A Better Life with Light

The cover of Technology Design magazine with an extravagant back deck of a large modern house complete with pool. Lit up at dusk.

Technology Designer magazine has the best coverstock of any magazine that has ever published my writing…and the attention to detail doesn’t stop there. The graphic design is clean and modern and the whole magazine is as luxurious as the projects inside. Okay, enough of a plug for the magazine!  If you want to decide if […]

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Vegas: City of Light (seeing) 2

An expensive hotel room with a large living area separated from the sleeping area by a wrought iron railing. There are many lamps all turned on lighting up the room.

Awhile back I posted a Lightseeing piece when I attended a conference at the Venetian in Las Vegas. Sometimes conferences take places at hotels that have pretty scruffy rooms. This was not one of those conferences. Every room at the Venetian is a suite; the one above was mine. I counted over twenty light sources […]

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The Future of Control?

A black Multiverse Transmitter box with four antennae coming from the back end - 900 MHz/2.4GHz

Earlier in my career I saw theater and architecture as two separate worlds. In one world I got to use cool control systems, color-changing lights, and mood-setting scenes. In the other world I got to use brilliant spotlights and broad wash lights. At some point I realized I was borrowing tools and techniques from theater […]

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Vegas: City of Light (seeing)

Vegas hotels lit up at night

Las Vegas is not the city of light, it is the city of lighting. Electric lighting. Lots and lots of electric lighting. And since Vegas is all about nightlife and casinos-without-windows, it is impossible to see anything in Las Vegas without Lightseeing. I was there with the team a few weeks ago for a conference, […]

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We’re on a Mission

Two people walking on a path through barren woods on a sunny day

Note: I began this post in a different world, a pre-coronavirus world.  Now, as many more of us are sheltering in place, light at home is more critical than ever.  Now, as many of us face illness, the benefits of light for wellness are more important than ever.  We’re still on a mission to help. […]

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Light Can Help You