Envision Lighting Design, LLC
  • Home
  • About
  • Projects
  • BLOG
  • Learn

Why Lighting Design?

5/31/2017

1 Comment

 
Your project has a budget. Maybe it's a tight budget. (Let's face it, it is always a tight budget.) You can't afford a lighting designer, right? Not so fast...
There seems to be a perception that a lighting designer is a project luxury. Why?
  • Lighting designers charge fees for their services.
I would like to challenge this notion. Lighting designers charge fees, but so do architects, electrical engineers, and interior designers. If you believe in design - good design - paying a fee for design is an easy choice. But let's dig a little deeper.

Every project has a budget. Even though you may have to bite a bullet to pay a design fee up front, you should think of that fee as part of the overall lighting budget. Whatever total dollar amount you have in the bucket to pay for lighting - tell your lighting designer. They can design to that budget, including their fee! With this model, you have the added transparency of knowing exactly what part of your money went to design costs and what part went to product costs. Design costs aren't hidden in the cost of light fixtures sold to you.
Remember, no one is designing lighting for free. They may offer "free" design, but the cost of their service is wrapped up in the cost of the products they are selling.
A lighting designer will be there from start to finish of project, solving any problems that arise along the way, keeping costs in control by knowing product prices and preventing unnecessary overages, keeping change orders in check by being your advocate during construction. Lighting designers are worth their fees in gold. They know which products perform best and at what cost. They design more efficient solutions that save you money - initially or over the life cycle of the product. They inform you of rebates and tax deductions you can use to help pay for your project. Remember, no one is designing lighting for free. They may offer "free" design, but the cost of their service is wrapped up in the cost of the products they are selling. The only product an independent lighting designer is selling is the best solution for your project. Don't you want someone with your best interest in mind? ​
1 Comment

Women in Lighting...at LIGHTFAIR

3/4/2015

0 Comments

 
Women in Lighting - An Open Dialogue


Thursday, May 7
10:30 am
Spotlight Lounge
I am so excited to announce that we will continue the conversation that we began last fall during Enlighten Americas. The Women in Lighting panel is coming to Lightfair this spring! This time, Barbara Horton, Vasiliki Malakasi, and Cheryl English will serve as panelists. I will be asking them - and the people in the audience - to share personal stories about their experiences as women in the lighting field. What can we do to make our industry one of the best places for women to work? Where have we been? What can we improve? And where are we going in the future?

The name of the session is Women in Lighting - An Open Dialogue. An open dialogue is exactly what it will be. I hope you can attend! Be ready to ask and answer questions. Be a part of the dialogue on Thursday, May 7 at 10:30am. This is a free session, and it will take place in the Spotlight Lounge. I hope to see you there! 
0 Comments

Merry Christmas!

12/10/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
I recently had the fun opportunity to create a float for my church in a lighted Christmas parade. We didn't have much time, but I think we came up with a pretty elegant solution, and our float won first prize in the parade.
What do you think? We are already formulating our concept for next year's parade. Any suggestions?

0 Comments

New Restaurant

5/22/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Check out this late-night action shot! This was a few weeks ago at a late Sunday night meeting at 801 Chophouse in Clayton, MO. Lisa was photographed measuring light levels for this beautiful new restaurant. Make a reservation there soon to enjoy the warm ambiance that was created by Core10 Architecture. This spot is sure to become a St. Louis favorite. Be one of the first to visit.

Thank you to Michael Byrd of Core10 for the photo!

0 Comments

Busy

4/4/2014

0 Comments

 
Conferences, speaking engagements, and projects - oh my!
Life has been busy at Envision Lighting Design. I'm going to try to get back into the habit of sharing it all with you here on the blog. There have been many recent inspirations, but I'm going to start with bringing you up to speed on one of my favorite bonus activities - the IES.

This year I am the chairperson of the IES EP Event. This is a day-long workshop designed for students and emerging professionals interested in the lighting field. During the event we provide tons of interaction between seasoned and emerging professionals in lighting. It is truly one of the most energizing and dynamic groups of people I know. This year's EP Event is being held in conjunction with the IES Annual Conference in Pittsburgh on November. 1 The Event will extend beyond our Saturday workshop with ongoing activities and interaction planned throughout the Conference, which will end on Tuesday November 4. If you have any questions about this event, contact me. I absolutely love to talk about it.

As chair of the EP Event, I'm also a part of the IES Annual Conference steering committee. We are busy selecting speakers and planning events for the conference to get just the right balance of education, networking, and entertainment. If you haven't been to an IES Conference in a few years, you should plan to get to this one. The talent we are bringing in this year will blow your mind! This is not your daddy's IES Conference.

Picture
Mark your calendars!

Next post: I'll fill you in on our latest St. Louis IES section meetings, and more!
0 Comments

Color Temperature Matters

1/22/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
co-lor  tem-per-a-ture: noun The temperature at which a black body radiator emits radiation of the same color as a given object.

You may or may not be able to understand the definition of color temperature, but you know it when you see it. The two luminaires in this photo both have compact fluorescent lamps in them. 

Saving energy = saving money = good. 
Mismatched color temperatures = bad.


The one on the left is a cooler color temperature than the one on the right. A cooler color temperature has a higher number, measured in Kelvin, while a warmer color temperature has a lower number. These two are around 3000K and 2700K. When shopping for replacement lamps, make sure to get consistent color temperatures, and decide ahead of time whether you want a warm color like incandescent or a cooler, "whiter" light.

1 Comment

IES Annual Conference - 2013 Redux

11/7/2013

0 Comments

 
It was another amazing IES Annual Conference! This year, I have to say the pre-conference Emerging Professional Workshop initiated the energy that propelled me through the rest of the conference! If you are not a part of the EP workshop, I feel sorry for you! If you want to be a part of it next year, contact me! We want to host 100 Emerging Professionals next year, which means we need even more experienced lighting professionals to participate and interact during the event
Picture
Picture
...the pre-conference Emerging Professional Workshop initiated the energy that propelled me through the rest of the conference!
The Sunday night Awards event was beautiful, with a record-setting 29 projects receiving Illumination Awards this year! For me, one of the highlights was seeing my old friend Kelly Jones who received an Award of Excellence for one of her projects. It was also fantastic to see Kristin Peck accept an Award of Distinction! Kristin was an intern when I worked at LDA (a lifetime ago) and her award-winning project was the first one designed by her new firm PrichardPeck Lighting. Congratulations Kelly and Kristin!

Monday morning's keynote address by Ekaterina Walter was on the topic of social media. This is an area where our industry as a whole lags, but I was personally inspired by her talk. There is no B2B; because of social media, business is all P2P. People to people. Number one takeaway: remember to "delight" your audience.
  1. Create great content
  2. Add value
  3. Build tribes
  4. Inspire movements

I was mostly attracted to papers and sessions that focused on lighting and health. Asha Hedge spoke about Sensory Processing Disorders and how lighting design - especially for schools - can accommodate students who fall under the umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorder or have other types of Sensory Processing struggles. The research in this field is minimal. What is available is sometimes contradictory and often based on anecdotal evidence. I believe this is a field which deserves more study, and the more we learn, the better environments we can create for everyone, not just those who have special needs. Lighting is for people. We need to create appropriate environments for all people.

The next general session was a fairly technical discussion about lamp lumen depreciation with LEDs. So many of our old metrics don't apply to LED technology, and we are playing catch-up as the researchers attempt to define new metrics. For example, what LLD factor do we apply to products that increase drive current over the life of an LED to avoid any lumen depreciation? Products with higher drive current could look identical to a lower drive current product at the beginning of life but will depreciate faster. What about driver failure? This isn't a part of a lumen depreciation calculation, but should it be a part of lamp life calculations? This general session was a great illustration of how the conference is turning back toward its "technical conference" roots. That's a great direction for the conference to take, given the speed of change in our industry today!

Lighting is more than meets the eye. The paper session by M. Wei about color preference under LEDs with Diminished Yellow Emission was fascinating. This study took a look at the preferences of people with side-by-side comparisons of two rooms. When energy in the yellow (570-580 nm) part of the spectrum was removed, preference increased - despite a lower CRI. There are currently 22 existing metrics for color quality, but which one or combination is the right one? His summary sentence, "Brightness perception can not be predicted by luminous efficacy." has huge implications. Efficacy is not the end-all be-all? What can we learn about human perception that might allow us to provide better quality of light with fewer lumens? How do our current metrics need to change to reflect this?

The Circadian, Neuroendocrine, and Neurobehavioral Effects of Lighting seminar on Tuesday afternoon, presented by Steven Lockley prompted a great conversation between my eye doctor and me. The crossover between disciplines is becoming more important than ever. Lockley discussed the connection between the newfound photoreceptors in the eye and 440 nanometer light. So, not just any light, but this particular wavelength of light is what helps us set Circadian rhythms. This light impacts our alertness (whether or not we actually feel more alert.) Even blind or rod/cone impaired people can sense light and dark when these photoreceptors are activated. The argument that comes next is, if 440 nm is the ideal wavelength do we need to be sitting around under blue light all day long? Or can warm light sources be enhanced in the 440 nm range?

It's an exciting time to be in lighting design! The more we research, the more we discover how important lighting is. There were plenty more concepts and ideas covered at this conference. There just isn't enough room here to discuss them all. Because of the informative papers and presentations plus the friendships and energy from the Emerging Professionals in our industry, the IES Annual Conference has become a definite "must attend" for me. Hope to see you there next year - in Pittsburgh! 
0 Comments

Canadian Tour

10/1/2013

0 Comments

 
I am looking forward to two upcoming speaking engagements! I will be presenting technical luncheons for two IES sections this month - in Montreal and Toronto. I love visiting Canada and speaking about lighting. Two of my favorite things! It should be a great trip.
Picture
0 Comments

Post-event Delight

9/27/2013

1 Comment

 
Picture
At last night's Illumination Awards event in St. Louis I found myself smiling until my cheeks hurt. Thank you, St. Louis lighting community for being energetic, creative, and fun!
I am so grateful for each of you. There are bunches of unique and special individuals in this group, and as a whole we are spectacular!
In the upcoming days we will be posting pictures from the photo booth and quotes from the time capsule on the IES Facebook page and Twitter to stretch out the fun just a little longer...
In the meantime, I'll be working outside on the deck surrounded by my favorite things and enjoying the sparkles of the disco ball!



1 Comment

Courtney's Comments

8/26/2013

0 Comments

 
As Courtney heads back to school for her senior year, we asked her to write a summary about her summer at ENvisionLD. Good luck at school this year, Courtney! We miss you already!

I would like to take the time to thank Envision Lighting Design for my internship experience this past summer. I have developed valuable leadership skills, the value of teamwork, and real world experience. It has been such a welcoming and positive environment to work in.

 Working for Envision Lighting Design has allowed me to apply my knowledge from my previous internship as well as my schooling so far. I have made connections with people that I never would have had the opportunity to meet if it wasn’t for Lisa. With this experience I feel one step closer to being confident in starting my career after just one short year left of college.

Thank you!!    
0 Comments
<<Previous

    RSS Feed

    Author:

    Lisa J. Reed, lighting designer and Principal at Envision Lighting Design, LLC

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives:

    February 2022
    January 2022
    February 2021
    January 2021
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    November 2016
    January 2016
    October 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories:

    All
    Book Review
    Business
    Calendar
    Certification
    Color Rendering
    Color Temperature
    Core Competencies
    Dark Sky
    Daylight
    Dimming
    Earth Day
    Encounter
    Energy
    Engage
    Enjoy
    Enlighten
    Envision
    Fluorescent
    Green
    Halogen
    Holiday Light
    Ies
    Incandescent
    Installation
    Internship
    Landscape Lighting
    Led
    Light And Health
    Lightfair
    Lighting
    Lighting At Home
    Lighting Basics
    Lighting Certification
    Lighting Controls
    Lighting Credential
    Lighting Design
    Maintenance
    Museum Lighting
    News
    Office Lighting
    Outdoor Lighting
    Recycling
    Restaurant Lighting
    Street Lighting
    T12 Phase Out
    Wbe
    Woman Owned Business

Contact

​​WBE: State of Missouri, City of St. Louis, and State of Illinois
WBENC and WOSB Certified
Privacy policy | Cookie policy
© copyright 2020, Envision Lighting Design, LLC
Photos used under Creative Commons from Uncleweed, geezaweezer, napalmz, WDanRoberts, joshme17, Vasenka, Ricardo Ricote Rodríguez, Gamma Man, weisserstier, SoulRider.222, loop_oh, Benson Kua, Gopal Venkatesan
  • Home
  • About
  • Projects
  • BLOG
  • Learn