Everything a Designer needs to know about lighting Bathrooms! 5 minute video tells you all – just click on the play icon!

Euroluce – European Light – time for mainly european decorative lighting companies to really show off their talents on a huge scale and what a show it was this year!

Decorative lighting design is being reborn with the LED now a serious and liberating light source. The Decorex show last year had a dirth of LED technology featuring in decorative fittings but here in Italy they have made a serious impact. The show was buzzing with activity as designers and lighting consultants passed from company to company, discovering the latest innovation and application. It seems there is new blood coursing through the lighting design worlds veins.

As LED is such a tiny light source, pencil thin reading and table lights have been launched – you often have to work out where the light is coming from as it seems too small to have a lamp!? Chandeliers that glow from almost invisible sources too. LED’s are so much fun. I even saw a surprisingly powerful 9mm diameter downlight!

OLED is making it’s debut, organic LED’s where wafer thin material shines with light. It’s an embryonic technology currrently limited to small panels but watch this space for this technology to revolutionise everything -  again!

LED’s have made it into decorative luminaires with good light outputs and decent colours, even tunable colouring where you can select the warmth of white you want in situ.

You the designer have been released from the constraints of lamp sizes like a spring lamb leaping it’s first few steps into a new born life – and you can see the fun there is to be had!

Go on – get out there and frollick!

This encapsulates the creative spark behind the ‘Gracie’ light and the McCloud lighting range as a whole. I worked with Kevin to produce his iconic lighting range in the early noughties. Today, I am pleased to announce that the McCloud lights are back in production having found a new manufacturing base and Orange Lighting are thrilled to have gained the exclusive sole distribution rights.

All commercially successful design needs a strong story behind it. Perhaps none stronger than introducing a light that was designed by Mr McCloud who has become synonymous with new home design to a generation. The narrative is sculptural with echoes of the fun and whimsical. Many have a rustic handmade feel or resonate with an early Italian rococo influence which Kevin adores.

The ‘Gracie’ light features a shade made from pure porcelain that casts a warm glow of honey across a room. Ideal for a welcoming ambiance, a convivial dining area or just to recreate candle lit atmosphere. It is available as pendants and wall lights to deliver a co-ordinated lighting scheme for a corporate or high end residential
interior.

Call us now for prices – the wait is over!

So I had a hunch that recent new building regulations had been overlooked by the design community. It was signalled by the many conversations I have over a week and as the months pass by it became increasingly obvious. So I sent out a survey to my community of 5000 designers to confirm my suspicions.

The survey revealed a worrying lack of knowledge about recent new lighting regulations that have been in force for months. The measures introduced by the government over a year ago are critical to new builds and refurbishments and can lead to expensive adjustments and even fines if not observed.

In my questionnaire – interior designers and architects were probed as to their awareness of the new Lighting Standard Part L1a; a measure that amongst others =  dramatically increases the stipulated use of low energy lighting. Over half 53% claimed to have no knowledge at all of the requirements. The findings raise serious concerns for all concerned in the building sector and for commissioning clients too.

The research results indicate a higher level of awareness of recent changes of building regulations and new specifications regarding low energy ratings. However further analysis reveals that design professionals have a shaky grasp of the facts and that the vast majority 72% do not have the necessary know how to choose fittings that comply with regulations including the new ‘Target Emissions Rate’.

I think these results are very sobering and the finger of blame should be pointed at the authorities. If sweeping new regulations are to be imposed – a commensurate level of publicity is necessary. It is plain through these results and from my conversations across my clientbase , that many of these new measures have not been flagged effectively.

For instance, the range of lights available has been transformed by these new measures, which in turn, has a large impact on the aesthetics of a scheme. Without a thorough awareness of the available lighting options designers will hampered in their outcomes.

I offer all designers a free briefing on the new regulations in order to avoid pitfalls with future projects. Just call or email me and I’ll send you a briefing.

Naturally, light at night has an essential function. You have doorways, a path, an alley, a driveway to illuminate etc. The skill of a designer is to incorporate the aesthetic so they are pleasing to the eye by using well designed contemporary low energy fittings.

Choosing decorative lighting stretches the role of lighting beyond function and into the realm of design feature – even focal point – often it can happily play the starring role.

We have a range of outdoor lighting that brings the floor lamp outside, pendants onto the patio, illuminated parasols onto the terrace! Otherwise dark spaces brought to life into the evening with style, wit and whimsy.

A lantern that illuminates without a lamp…how?

Is that parasol a light!?

Don’t miss an opportunity to decorate your outdoor spaces with light as you would the interior! Click here for our range

‘Lighting’ as a discipline, a product and as a regulated building component, covers a multitude of topics. It’s my pleasure to help you navigate through these waters and it is often a case of anticipating what perils or obstacles that you may encounter – so that we can offer a useful soloution. So please send me your list of lighting issues that require clarification!

Emergency lighting has always been a topic most of us like to avoid – I mean they are ugly things that we a can stick in the corner somewhere surely? The challenge as designers is to specify emergency lights that are aesthetically pleasing!

Before we explore the creative side – let’s first bring you up to speed with some basics. I have prepared a general guide – not an alternative to reading of the regulations in depth! Click here to download a pdf for your future refence. The guide answers questions including…

What is ’emergency lighting?

When there is a power failure to the lighting circuit, there must be an independent back up power to keep the interior of the building lit. For quick evacuation there must be a series of light fittings to direct the building’s occupants to the nearest exit.

What buildings require them?

What kind of emergency lights are there?

Where do the batteries go?

How long does the battery have to last?

Where do I need to place emergency lights?

Snags to think about – concrete soffits etc!

Amazingly – you can be creative with emergency lighting – although it has taken months of research to find the lights that deliver this outcome! Begin your search for emergency lighting options on the website but here are a sample to whet your appetite!

Remember – do send me your questions and lighting issues and we will the share the solutions with all!

See you next time!

Birmingham lighting show more aimed at retailers than specifiers for decorative lighting. Chinese LED chaps displaying latest shapes and sizes of retro fit lamp. Do not expect to be wowed at annual NEC gathering but still worth a whizz round.