We recently lost a potential client to a manufacturer who offered “free” lighting design services (so long as you purchased fixtures from them, of course, which have the cost of service buried into the sale price). My first reaction was indignation but, as is often the case, a closer look revealed a much more nuanced […]
I want you to buy my car. It is white, has 18″ wheels and a hybrid motor, and I want you to pay me $50,000. Pretend that you do not know much about cars, so you ask the friendly clerk at a nearby tire shop. It turns out that they can also sell you a […]
I was recently asked to define the catchy term Human Centric Lighting, or HCL. We love lighting acronyms in the lighting world, so I came up with a few more than my previous post on this subject. Consider yourself warned. At its most essential, Human Centric Lighting is an attempt to undo our mistakes of […]
I am excited to share a milestone with you but also wondering if the three plus years I’ve been blogging has been a waste of time. I started writing as a selfish endeavor to help me be a better lighting communicator. Maybe I should have just built better lighting instead. In a perfect world, I could simply […]
Whoops. I just spent a lot of time re-designing the “light and health” section of our design presentations to include updated sections on the latest research, examination of snake-oil-sounding miracle products, and in-depth explanations of our six strategies for incorporating the science into our design work. I was very proud of the finished product. “Pride […]
And…we’re back. The conversation around my first BS* + Beer guest appearance was so, er, illuminating that we found ourselves together just a few weeks later. This time the focus of the conversation was on lighting for the rest of us, or practical strategies we could apply on our own projects. Once again the hosts and guests […]
If you are one of my faithful readers that was sad in 2020 because I wrote only half my normal quantity of posts, I owe you an apology and an explanation. Of course, 2020 is a year that will go down in history as the year of “no apology needed.” I’m sorry I didn’t make […]
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 […]
One of the perks of starting your own company is that you get to pick your job title. At some point I decided that “Chief Evangelist of Light” (CEL) would be my own. Evangelist is a term that can have positive and negative connotations in our society, and that makes CEL of risky title. I […]
“They are total know-it-alls.” I often ask homeowners, integrators, architects, and others if they have ever worked with a lighting designer. Most homeowners have not, and many do not know that we exist. The story is different for those in the trade. And in residential lighting design, from the responses I receive, there are know-it-alls […]
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 […]