Why Light?

One of the most common questions I get asked when I meet new people is "what do you do for a living?" to which I reply "I am a Lighting Designer". Now people from within this industry will probably sympathise with the blank faced expression formulating the response! To explain this complex role I have chosen for myself comes with quite a number of challenges. A lighting designer is a creative yet technical role which is largely taken for granted by its everyday users.

While setting up my own practice I have taken a deep dive into what has let me to light and what I actually find fascinating about this much underestimated medium. Before my professional career in lighting, like many of us light was a part of my life that I didn't consider that much. I knew I didn't much care for being in an office environment, it made me feel ill, made my skin bad and I generally spent as little time in an office as possible. I knew that I felt better when I awoke to a beautiful blue sky on a sunny morning. I was aware that sparkly things drew my eye and that bright moving objects where mesmerising. Try not looking at the TV when it is on in a room and you are not interested in what's being shown, years of children TV, I can tell you its hard not to be drawn in. I knew that looking at clothes in a shop would sometime mislead you on colour, my nan always buying navy blue thinking it was black from M&S! I never thought why these things were so, until later on in my career with light.

I first started to realise the importance of light from a Design point of view when working for Vitra. My first role within the Retail Industry, working in the Vitrashop arm of the business. I remember one of my first projects working on a small boutique retail design and build in Oxford. One of her issues was window lighting. Being south facing and competing with the sun on bright days to make her windows look bright and inviting. Not really having any training in light and what needed to be done to achieve this, I failed! Now, I know that competing with the sun in shop windows you are always going to struggle, but I now know some simple tricks to maximise the impact even when battling the sun. I always think back to this project when lighting windows. My first lesson in the importance of light placement!

My move to Microlights, a product manufacturer, is where I learnt the importance of light in design. Back then, we were talking about traditional forms of lighting technology and the capabilities of each. Luckily the firm appreciated the importance of knowing your craft and I spent a lot of time with various departments learning all the different aspects of light and how we controlled light for varying affects. Part of my learning experience was to be taken around London, visiting various different buildings and looking how light had been used. One of the main areas I would work in would be retail and this is where I started to learn another aspect of lighting design, manipulation. Who would have thought that lighting can be used to manipulate a shopper? When you start to think about it, it actually seems quite logical, to sell you need to entice and draw attention. We are all naturally programmed to be drawn to the brightest light, this idea can be used to draw your shoppers attention around a store.

CoeLux was another steep learning curve. Being a niche lighting product developed to simulate the sun, there was a whole new understanding of light and it's importance in our lives. Going back to "feeling better on a sunny day" CoeLux was where I realised why this was and what reactions are happening on a biological scale. I learnt that light has a profound affect on the way we feel and how responsive we are. This newly developing area of lighting design is still on-going, but with initiatives like the WELL Design Guide hopefully our built environments will start to support more holistic environments.

So Why Light?

Light forms what we see, how we feel and dictates whether we thrive. Lighting is an extremely technical element of design. It can be used extremely well to enhance the built environment and support the people exposed to it. Lighting can also be one of the highest costs when looking at on-going energy spend. It is always important to look at the bigger picture and consider all elements of what is being installed. It is one of the most important aspects of a design and I feel extremely passionate about assisting design teams making the most from this facinating medium.