If You Want to Go Far, Go Together

When we think of a typical career arc, we have a certain picture in mind. Following graduation, you join a firm and gradually work your way up. Finally, you reach upper management. Maybe, after having firmly established your career, you experience the freedom that comes with setting off on your own venture. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, however.

Shoshanna Segal recently made the rare jump out of private practice and back into working within a lighting design firm. Shoshanna has had a long career in the lighting industry, beginning in the 90s with Domingo Gonzalez Associates. She then worked as a rep at two different firms – an experience that she cites as crucial to her development. She followed that up with stints at Zumtobel, Kugler Tillotson, HLW, SBLD Studio, and HLB Lighting Design before setting off on her own and starting Luminous Flux.

This past August, Shoshanna left her solo venture and joined the team at Hartranft Lighting Design, a decision she made so that she could spend more time devoted to design. “Being a solo practitioner requires a particular level of split consciousness,” she explained. It requires having multiple pots on the stove at once, and when the business pot starts boiling, you have to drop the design project you are working on and attend to those administrative issues instead. She quipped, “I am so much happier filling out a timesheet than creating invoices.”

As a designer, she is used to running multiple projects at the same time. Things get complicated when the managerial tasks of a business owner are added on top of those projects. This mayhem can be energizing for a while, but eventually it becomes exhausting. Her time was consumed by things that have nothing to do with lighting design but everything to do with running a business. She felt she was sacrificing the attention to detail that good lighting design requires.

In a recent conversation with a collaborator, she found herself deep in the weeds, discussing the difference between a wall washer and an adjustable accent, when it struck her – this is the type of thing that is difficult to do when you are on your own. “Some people do this very well,” she reflected, “but I found that I was losing a certain amount of fluency in dealing with the fine details of lighting design.”

The genesis of her decision began during the pandemic. Her life was significantly impacted by COVID. “After dealing with those personal changes,” she explained, “it became clear to me that there was enough to do on my own, that I didn’t have to do everything on my own.” And so, she began the process of finding a firm where she could focus fully on designing projects and leave the business up to the people who do it best.

Shoshanna had conversations with multiple firms, and in the end, she decided on Hartranft Lighting Design. HLD was the perfect fit, thanks in large part to the impeccable leadership of Andrea Hartranft. The company was founded in 2013 and has grown quickly, now consisting of a team of thirteen spread across the country.

Shoshanna shared an anecdote that encapsulates Andrea’s open-minded leadership and flexibility. When she joined the firm in August, she still had projects with Luminous Flux that she was working on finishing. She shared these details with Andrea, who simply allowed her to finish her work without asking for a percentage of the remaining fees. Andrea wasn’t worried about the small details and instead gave her the freedom she needed to complete those jobs. Shoshanna noted, “Andrea doesn’t need to make room in her brain for minutiae that don’t relate to good projects getting done.” Given her desire to focus more on designing, it’s easy to see why HLD was such a good fit.

Another aspect of the company that has proven incredibly valuable is the relationships with other designers in the firm and the connections they have. She now has access to a wider list of reps and line cards. “I can call people all over the U.S., because our projects are spread around the country, and our people are, too,” she explained. Not all reps are created equal, and now, with access to so many, she can work with those that support her the most.

The connections of her colleagues are valuable, but so is their experience. In working with her fellow designers at HLD, she has the chance to indirectly learn from Candy Kling and other highly-respected designers with whom she never had the opportunity to work.

The access to the knowledge and experience of her colleagues, and, by extension, their mentors, is priceless, as is the opportunity to mentor up-and-coming designers. “It’s hard to mentor people if you don’t have juniors around you,” she remarked. Freelancers are great for the role they serve, but the relationship of a junior designer to a senior is essential to the continuing the practice of lighting design.

In our previous issue, we discussed the merger of Randy Burkett Lighting Design and Envision Lighting Design. Both Randy Burkett and Lisa Reed expressed their desire to spend less time consumed by administrative work. Randy said, “The time I do have left in lighting, I want to spend designing.” It is clear from this interview with Shoshanna that she felt the same way, and the lighting design community will be better served when she is doing what she does best – designing projects. ■