We are thrilled to have the opportunity to speak with Elsa Gil Benito, the Emerging Lighting Product Designer of the Year 2022 at the LIT Awards. As a young and up-and-coming designer, Elsa’s fresh perspective and innovative approach to lighting design are sure to inspire and excite.
Could you tell us a little about yourself?
I am Elsa Gil, an enthusiast about the world.
I studied product design, and in my postgraduate studies, I specialized in biodesign. Throughout my career, I could promote everything I knew: sustainability, humanism, the health of ecosystems, wealth, and welfare… And when I discovered this area of design in my postgraduate studies I developed all my projects around it.
But I am not just a designer. I am an artist, a cook, a friend, a traveler, a daughter, and a human being fascinated by life. I consider myself a whole ecosystem with different contexts, links, and responses to other organisms…
Being a biodesigner changed my life because it allowed me to learn from nature and be more in contact with organisms, which reminded me that we are not the only ones. Research made me realize that we are just a small ecosystem, part of a bigger one, and we need to protect and respect the whole ecosystem. But being a biodesigner wasn’t enough; I needed to make an impact in my personal life too. I’m part of a community of people who took the opportunity and found the solution in veganism and biodesign, to help our ecosystem.
I believe I’ve gained a holistic perspective through my projects, which were complete systems instead of single products. It is a good aptitude for organizing a project, the steps, and thinking about which other areas could be involved or affected. I’ve been working with mycelium for two years as a designer, getting to know it from the point of view of ready-to-use materials and working with its properties without biohacking them as a consequence of a lack of resources.
How did you discover your passion for Lighting Product Design?
I’ve always considered lighting an interactive way of working and connecting with our creations. There are many possibilities and components to create a magical environment as a result. In my case, it was through biomaterials and their incredible and unique colors. My objective was to find a substitute for the materials in these “day-to-day” products.
Why did you choose to study Lighting Products at the ESNE, Escuela Universitaria de Diseño, Innovación y Tecnología? When will you graduate?
I decided to study product design at ESNE as a way of focusing my creativity through methodology, new ideas, experimentation, etc. But always with the intention of creating something useful. Lighting was part of different projects, and I decided to include it in my Final Project Ma-ka. Lighting was an opportunity to bring nature into our interiors.
Can you please share your creative journey behind “Ma-Ka Lighting System”?
The project started with research, followed by inspiration, sketching, and more and more research. At the same time, I enrolled in various educational programs to deepen my understanding of the biomaterials world.
The formal development of Ma-ka was guided by the “Material Driven Design” (MDD) tool. Through it, the concepts are focused according to the characteristics of the materials, to adapt the products to them and not the other way around. Previous and theoretical knowledge about the material to be treated and experimentation are keys to knowing what you are going to work with.
Learning with materials helps bring out their maximum potential, by following their properties and expanding their undiscovered possibilities. Mycelium is an organic material, and it is through the forms, techniques, and communication of Ma-ka that this knowledge about nature is collected.
Ma-Ka Lighting System by Elsa Gil Benito
The Lighting System is made of a biomaterial, can you please explain how you create it and how long it takes? What are the benefits of it?
Mycelium can be described as the roots of mushrooms. It is considered one of the most powerful biomaterials with low cost, requirements, and ingredients. However, there are a lot of possibilities for contamination during the growing process. That’s why for the project I decided to buy Grow It Yourself kits: a useful resource to learn how to work with it and reduce the contamination range.
I fabricated my own thermoformed molds from my digital design. These molds are the ones that give shape to the mycelium, which adapts to its container. After an incubation period of four days, I took them off the molds and attached several pieces by hand, creating the final column. The mycelium keeps growing, so the structure can be bio-assembled by its expansion. For this big product, the whole process took me two weeks, including the drying step.
The potential of micomaterials becomes clear when we know their properties and understand that they can be compared to various traditional materials.
For example, chipboard, whose production starts with sawdust or wood chips agglutinated with special resins, so that it has the desired texture, density, and resistance.
It can be applied to architecture, interior design, products, etc. It is possible to manufacture chipboard, petroleum-derived plastics, and even fabrics for the textile industry from mycelium. Depending on how they are cultivated, they can have similar properties without the need to use resins or chemical gums. Mycelium is responsible for naturally binding the raw material. Depending on the object to be designed, we will have to consider different production models to achieve different properties.
Ma-Ka Lighting System by Elsa Gil Benito
You are just starting your career as a Lighting Product Designer… what do you want to do next? What are your dreams?
Right now I am planning to start my journey in a PhD program, as I believe that it is through education and research that biodesign can enter our daily lives.
My dream is to have my own design studio where I could develop my projects and at the same time teach and research. My objective is to keep learning.
Last, what makes light magical to you?
For me, light becomes magical when there’s a game purpose: when you can decide to play with its shadows, and create your own magical environment.
We spoke with designer Mykola Kabluka about how his team at Ukrainian company Expolight is once again finding a way forward with light. Mykola, winner of the “Lighting Product Design of the Year” title, told us more about the creative journey in designing the chandelier at Unit City’s B14 campus in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Light is almost my whole life. A hobby in the form of light was born during my studies, although my specialty was not related to light. Immediately after graduating from university, I started Expolight, which this month turns 22. We are based in Dnipro, Ukraine.
How did you discover your passion for Lighting Product Design?
It all started with my fascination with light: how it radically transforms our perception of the world, our emotional state, our perception of ourselves in space, and our relationship with it. That’s why I became interested in lighting design. We have a sustained balance between both technical and artistic points of view. Because in the design of our elements, we treat light as an excellent tool, like an artist. To make a good painting you need brushes of different widths, thicknesses, and types. In a similar way, we gradually came to the point where we designed our lamps. And through our study of the nature of light and our thirst for the study of light, we were inspired by the effects of light in the atmosphere and in different conditions, such as varying sun positions, different states of air humidity, clouds, and shadows. An exciting material for researching light is glass, which is solid. But at the same time, it is one of the few materials that are translucent and can transform light in different ways: re-reflecting, scattering, and refracting it. And that’s what we dedicated the Optical Metaphor brand to. We equate the metaphor to natural phenomena, such as natural lighting, by designing unique light sources and using customized glass from our production as a light-transforming object.
Photo Credit: Expolight
Can you please share with us, what was your creative journey when designing the chandelier? How would you describe the role and responsibilities when working on this design? What was the most challenging part of the project and how did you overcome it?
My approach to light is unusual. More often than not, a person is more inclined to either the technical part of the job, an engineering view of the world, or is more creative. And it happened that, to an equal degree, both spheres are close to me. My first education was in mathematical modeling, and my second was in lighting design. This combination expresses my approach to light. When we have an artistic image to create, we immediately see it and, from a technical angle, how it can be realized. This project is one of many planned for the huge Unit City Innovation Center complex. There we have illuminated many buildings, public spaces, and interior spaces. Hence, its philosophy is profoundly at the center of a modern view of the future of humanity, where technology is combined with the philosophy of care and sustainable interaction with nature. And this philosophy is reflected in all the elements we work on. We developed this project together with architect Victoria Yakusha and her Yakusha Design team. We wanted to make something that was both plastic and natural, but also technological. Because of this, we spent a long time selecting and designing these prismatic glass tubes and chose the illumination method to show the complexity of natural perception. So there are these complex, intersecting shapes that intertwine. They transform the light into an intricate image, which we did with our designed lenses, which have three types of beam widths at different angles so that these lenses and the multi-layered screens of these extremely long glass tubes covered with prisms create modern natural light, which at the same time is very technological.
One of the most challenging parts of the job was to design and achieve the production of such an incredibly long glass lens. We spent a long time adjusting our standard approaches to pouring a glass for such a long tube, 1600 mm long. That length is complicated to achieve, so we had to work on it, and it was also challenging, with such long rods, so closely spaced, to keep them from bumping against each other through the air from the vent.
We figured out how to lock the tubes in place, so they wouldn’t bump into each other, so we designed custom transparent and barely noticeable spacers made of optical plastic that replicated the grooved shape of the tube. They fix the chandelier so that it does not move and does not knock in its lower part. They are entirely invisible, so they do not destroy the overall clean and light appearance of the simple shape of the chandelier.
Photo Credit: Expolight
What does it mean to you, to win the Lighting Product Design of the Year 2022 prize?
This is very valuable and gratifying for our brand because it is a young brand that grew out of our passion for researching the natural phenomena of light and optical effects. But this award is precious because it is a motivating ray for Ukraine and Ukrainians. As you know, the situation in our country is now challenging because of Russia’s unjust aggression. Russia is plunging our entire country into darkness to destroy our energy system and leave us without electricity, heat, and water. Most of Ukraine now lives without stable electricity, heat, or communications. We never thought that one day we could do without what have always been such simple everyday things: charging gadgets, warm homes, and all that kind of stuff.
Therefore, we must be stable and work further, and this victory is very motivating for our company and the whole country because we live and move on. And it is symbolic to receive such bright news at the darkest moment. An interesting fact: We learned about this news literally at the darkest time: on November 15, immediately after the entire country was plunged into darkness during the first blackout due to the severe destruction of the Ukrainian energy system. My whole team and I were in the office and continued to work. Our office has all the conditions for this thanks to generators, Starlink, and an ample water supply (and soon, we will also have our well). This is how we continue to be in contact with the whole world and work in different corners of the world.
No matter how much Russia tries to plunge Ukraine into darkness, we want to show with our activities and victories that the light is still stronger and wins.
What are you working on at the moment, and do you have any upcoming projects or collaborations that you’re able to tell us about?
Now we have even more work to do around the world on different continents, and in the USA, Europe, and Great Britain. In the UAE, Armenia, Georgia, and Bali… There are many different countries; the geography is very wide. The situation in the country gave us an impetus to focus more on the international field. One of the most interesting projects now, where we also use our optical filter lenses, is one of the iconic properties in Dubai, with architecture by Zaha Hadid Architects. The task was to create unique lighting effects in the common space in the atrium of this impressive building. It is a great honor to work in facilities where such famous architects work. We created a custom floor lamp with our philosophy and are now in the final testing stage. It can be adjusted to create special caustic water effects; it has the appearance of the sun’s rays passing through the water and creating dynamic reflections. We love this effect.
What would be your best advice to Emerging Lighting Product Designers?
Be fascinated by the light. Light can be studied endlessly and is very interesting, as long as you look at it not as a practical entity that illuminates a dark space but rather as the inspirational-sacred function of light, which creates a mood, formulates our perception of the world, and inspires us. It is exciting to progress from the practical part to a higher level and study light as a metaphor for the natural phenomena in the modern world, combining it with modern technologies, while also studying basic light phenomena and reproducing them in your work.
Last, what can we wish you for 2023?
Please wish that democracy defeats totalitarianism and that Ukraine endures and wins in the fight against the totalitarian aggression of the Russian Federation. We are sure of this because light always wins over darkness.
We talked to Owen Fernando Patia, a student at the California College of The Arts and winner of the title of Emerging Lighting Designer of the Year 2022 about his inspiration behind the award-winning project AQUA.
Could you tell us a little about yourself?
My name is Owen Fernando Patia, I am from Jakarta, Indonesia, and currently a student studying Interior and lighting design at CCA. Since childhood, the world around me has revolved around colors and preposterous imagination as I grew up loving fantasy genre movies. It has always been a dream of mine to once live in this fantasy; to incorporate the impossible into the reality of life.
How did you discover your passion for Lighting Design? Why did you choose to study Lighting Design at the California College of the arts?
Interior design was the answer to turning imaginations into reality. My college, California College of the Arts allowed me to explore every point of my imagination and taught me how to bring these fantasies into real-life application. It is only with the aid of lighting design can you optimize the mood and ambiance of a space.
Can you please share your creative journey behind “AQUA”? Where is your inspiration from?
The element, ‘water’ has always placed a place in my heart and I have been observing its elegant flow and beauty in movies and real life. Disney’s little mermaid was a significant inspiration for my project, AQUA, where I explored the fantastical reality of living underwater; how it would look and feel. AQUA is a unique theater design project where humans get to experience the mood and ambiance underwater.
What does it mean to you, to become the Emerging Lighting Designer of the Year 2022?
This recognition shows that my imaginations were not completely absurd. There are people in this world who appreciate my wild imagination, especially in such a technical industry as lighting design. It is a symbol of hope that I will carry throughout my journey as a designer.
What are you working on now? Can you share some glimpse of your next Lighting Design project?
Currently, I am working on a restaurant design project. It is called ‘Sanctuaire de Glace’, where I am mainly exploring lighting as a sequence.
You are just starting your career as a Lighting Designer… what do you want to do next?
Up until now, the majority of my projects have only come out in the form of digitalized conceptual renderings. I would love to start fantastical projects that support real-life applications, so in search of internships, I hope to gain these experiences.
Last, what shall we wish you for 2023?
I hope my imagination can keep growing along with the industry, so we will be able to turn a fantasy into reality.
In 1993, Hervé Descottes founded light
First of all, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Hervé Descottes. I was born in Dijon, came to America in ’93 and founded L’Observatoire International. I lived in France until my 20s and have always been inspired by my surroundings, my city, the lighting, and the fog in winter. Little by little we have grown to become the successful company and team we are today.
What was Hermès’ original design brief for their collection presentation at the Milan Design Week?
The idea of softness. The lamps were inspired by the shoji shades in Japanese houses, the glow and the warmth. That’s how we started.
Photo Credits: Maxime Verret courtesy of Hermès.
What was the most challenging part of the project?
Finding the right balance between making the product glow and avoiding unwanted shadows. I really wanted to feel like I was going to be inside of a lamp, feeling the paper’s softness, gentle, and round light. That was the idea.
What does it mean to you to win the “Lighting Designer of the Year 2022” award?
First of all, thank you for selecting me, and thank you for the award. Of course, I’m so delighted. It is always a challenge to be recognized and accepted by your peers. For me, it is a very important award, and I am definitely honored.
Photo Credits: Maxime Verret courtesy of Hermès.
In general, where does your design inspiration come from?
Every day. Daily life, from the morning sun, the places I go in the evening, the books I read, and the movies I watch. It’s compiling a lot of story images. For me, good lighting and a good project must always be a great story.
Photo Credits: Maxime Verret courtesy of Hermès.
Do you have any upcoming projects or collaborations you can tell us about?
I am very busy. I think we have a lot going on these days. From the expansion of the Fondation Cartier in Paris – a great place for temporary exhibitions – to some beautiful hotel restaurants.
We have incredible designs in the works for the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi. That project is now taking shape, it’s under construction, and when you look at the pictures and understand its scale, it is very impressive. We are also in the process of working on a renovation here in New York, and a beautiful school academy with Jean Nouvel in Singapore. Many great projects, and I feel very fortunate.
What would be your advice to any emerging lighting designers?
Trust your gut and don’t give up! It’s an amazing field. You require a very different type of skill from being extremely technical and understanding the technology. You have to understand your heart, your feelings and be able to find the right balance between technology and emotions.
The LIT Lighting Design Awards were established to recognize the efforts of talented international product designers and lighting designers. The program recognizes creativity and innovation in the fields of lighting products and applications.
The jury, consisting of 43 talented and experienced professionals, architects, interior designers, academics and lighting industry media representatives, selected the winners of the 6th edition of the LIT Awards. The program received over 650 submissions from 51 countries. All designs were judged on their own merits.
The range of works is amazing: L’Observatoire International was awarded the title of Lighting Design of the Year for the Hermès collections at Milan Design Week 2022 and Expolight received the Lighting Product Design of the Year award for the Chandelier in the B14 UNIT. City business space.
As lighting is one of the most important things when it comes to creating an experience, the LIT Awards place great emphasis on recognizing the best lighting artists in the Entertainment Lighting Design category.
Hong Kong Harbour Fiesta – Artists in Motion / Lead Designers Richard Lindsay (Artists in Motion) + Adam Bassett (Woodroffe Bassett Design)
Award winners include: Quiet Ensemble with Vertical Horizon, an Interactive Lighting Project, designer Yann Kersalé won in the Music Event Lighting category with Pulse of Light, GCLX Production Lighting was recognized with Breaking the Castle, and EO won in the Theater Performance Design category with ROADTRIP. Winners in the Entertainment Lighting Product Design category included Ayrton with its Cobra phosphor laser source luminaire.
Die Ärzte Stadium Festival design 2022 by Bertil Mark Lighting Design / Photo Credits: Ralph Larmann – Paul Gärtner
Winners will receive extensive publicity over the next year to showcase their achievements to a global audience. Their designs will be featured in the annual Book of Design, which will be distributed worldwide. They will also receive the LIT Lighting Design Awards certificate and badge of achievement, as well as a year-round profile in the LIT Awards Online Directory. For the full list of winners of the 2022 LIT Lighting Design Awards, visit litawards.com/winners.
Pavilion of Moonlight Horizon by Light is More / Lead Designer: Pauline David / Client: Noor Riyadh
Asking for a ‘sustainable project’ looks good on a client brief, but can we ever achieve a sustainable solution? The hard truth is that ‘sustainability’ isn’t binary. It’s not something that either is, or isn’t, like a light switch. To carry on with that control analogy, sustainability is more like a dimmer that can be set anywhere between 0 and 100%. Because sustainability is a process and processes tend not to be absolutes.
But even if we’re not talking in absolutes, it still helps to be able to frame what sustainability means to us as designers and to our clients. Let’s look at three major headline issues that all address sustainability, but which all take different routes to achieve a sustainable goal.
Climate action. We used to call this energy efficiency, back in the days when we thought the only thing that mattered was to try to reduce the amount of fuel that we were burning. Now we know that climate action is probably the single most important factor for everything that we do, both in our business and in our personal lives. It’s still about reducing the fuel that we’re burning – but our lives now depend on it.
So what actions are we taking to reduce carbon emissions; to protect biodiversity; to protect food production in the world. These are not things that happen by accident; they only happen by design.
Circular economy. We’re familiar with the slogan ‘leave it in the ground’ as related to fossil fuel extraction. But this relates to far more than oil and gas. By making lighting fixtures that can be used again and again, by replacing exhausted components such as LED engines and drivers while retaining the mass of the fixture body, we can reduce the need for virgin materials to be mined and quarried. The planet does not hold an infinite supply of raw materials. We have to conserve what we’re using.
Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) reporting, aka Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Some organisations draw a distinction between ESG and CSR, but it’s a pointless exercise because, whatever you call it, it has the same end view. These reporting frameworks tell us how well businesses are doing in meeting the Ten Principles established by the United Nations in its Global Compact.
In a perfect world, we’d all score 100% on everything. We don’t live in a perfect world; we live in a world where we strive to do better. Promoting the sustainable criteria of architectural projects is a way of saying ‘we’ve come this far. We aim to go further. Please join us on the journey.
Zurich, Switzerland – The LIT Lighting Design Awards was created to recognize the efforts of talented international lighting product designers and lighting designers. The program celebrates creativity and innovation in the fields of lighting products and applications.
The jury panel composed of 43 talented and experienced professionals, Architects, Interior Designers, Academics and media representatives in the lighting industry have selected the winners of the 6th Edition of the LIT Awards. The program received over 650 submissions from 51 countries, all designs have been evaluated based on their own merit.
The range of work is astonishing, L’Observatoire International was awarded the “Lighting Design of the Year” title for the Hermès’ collections at Milan Design Week 2022 and Expolight won the “Lighting Product Design of the Year” award for the Chandelier in the B14 UNIT. City business space.
In the young talent categories, Owen Fernando Patia, a student at California College of The Arts received the prize of “Emerging Lighting Designer of the Year” with AQUA and Elsa Gil Benito, a student of ESNE, Escuela Universitaria de Diseño, Innovación y Tecnología won the “Emerging Lighting Product Designer of the Year” for Ma-Ka Lighting System.
“At the LIT Lighting Design Awards, we strive to support and promote inspired projects and innovation by professional and emerging designers from around the world; assembling in one platform outstanding projects from Brazil to Canada, Germany and Thailand.” said Program Director, Astrid Hébert. “This program will continue to showcase Lighting Product and Lighting Design excellence.”
Introduced in 2018, the Lifetime Achievement Awards has recognized Lighting Designers, Lighting Product Designers and other professionals in the Lighting Industry, whose contributions are inspirational. Patrick Woodroffe is celebrating over 40 years of career lighting rock concerts, operas, ballet, architecture, and special events; Dave Kavanagh, Senior lighting and industrial designer at Planet Lighting in Australia, are awarded the LIT Lifetime Achievement Awards for their impressive design contribution to the International lighting community.
The Spotlight Prize is awarded to an organization, association, project, or initiative that carries out remarkable work for its community and has a major contribution to the Lighting Industry. The LIT Design Awards is thrilled to announce that “The Studio School of Design (SSD)” in New York City is receiving the 2022 Spotlight prize for its engagements towards education accessibility, diversity, and inclusivity. Launched in spring 2021, SSD is a 501c3 Not-for-profit community organization, seeking to provide equitable and inclusive low-cost classes in lighting design both online and in-person to a wide-ranging pool of talented and motivated students.
Other honorees in the Lighting Design category included Liska with Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík, Iceland, CLL . Concept Lighting Lab won with the One & Only Mandarina hotel, SEAM Design is awarded with the MahaNakhon Tower: Ritz-Carlton Residences, in Light Art Project, Light is More won with the Pavilion of Moonlight Horizon and Bruno Ribeiro with Vibrance; Tillotson Design Associates, Licht Kunst Licht and Beijing Leuchte Lighting Design received multiple prizes.
Winners in Lighting Product Design included Maytoni with Maya, John Cullen Lighting is awarded in the Deck and Step Lights category with Lecco Floorwasher, BuzziSpace with BuzziChip, Pharos Architectural Controls for their newly developed “Full management of lighting installations from anywhere, with any device” and ambience with the LEGO Linear Luminaire.
Winners will receive extensive publicity over the next year to present their achievements to a global audience. Their designs will be featured in the annual Book of Design, which will be distributed worldwide, and they will also receive the LIT Lighting Design Awards certificate and badge of achievement, as well as a year-round profile in the LIT Awards Online Directory. To view the full list of the LIT Lighting Design Awards 2022 winners, check litawards.com/winners
The Studio School of Design (SSD) is an interdependent community of practice where experiential learning is embedded into a curriculum of design storytelling. It celebrates the full range of human cultural expression and identity and especially supports those who are and have previously been marginalized or excluded from the design professions. They see lighting design as a creative art form and are deeply invested in the potential of telling diverse and inclusive human stories through the medium of light.
The Studio School of Design’s vision is to increase collective knowledge and diversify access to the lighting design field across the places where we work. The school is a 501c3 Not-For-Profit community organization, seeking to provide equitable and inclusive low-cost classes both online and in-person to a wide-ranging pool of talented and motivated students.
This year, the 2022 « Spotlight » prize has been awarded to The Studio School of Design for its engagements towards education accessibility, diversity, and inclusivity. SSD is providing affordable (or free) learning environments and educational programs, preparing emerging lighting designers for the broad range of today’s lighting careers.
Photo by Rosalie O’Connor
The Studio School of Design began operations in the spring of 2021 with courses in Lighting for the Camera, Business Skills for Freelancers, Assisting with Large Scale Projects, and, importantly, a survey course of all the professions where designers work outside of the traditional theatre markets (65 students from 8 countries). They continued in the fall with courses in Video Content Creation and Pre-Visualization.
Additionally, they have offered free programs such as Pioneers of Light: The History of Women in Lighting Design (attended by over 80 online participants), Color and Light in a Mixed Source World, two Lighting Design Educator workshops for High School and University level instructors, and Networking events, both on Zoom and in person, to facilitate contact between designers, associates, directors, and choreographers. This spring (2023), the Studio School of Design will again offer Bob Barnhart’s highly successful Lighting for the Camera course, as well as courses in Vectorworks 3D and a Dance Lighting Intensive.
Photo by Rosalie O’Connor
One of their most exciting initiatives has been the launch of our High School Summer Workshop, a pilot program attended by 13 high school students, primarily from underserved school districts, for 4 days in the summer of 2022 (video of Students sharing their experiences). With the support of the Chelsea Factory and other donors, students participated for free in hands-on training in designing and telling stories with light. They are currently in the advanced planning stages for an expanded multi-week program targeting 40 high school students for the summer of 2023.
The Studio School of Design continues to offer online courses through Zoom, making course materials available to a large group of learners from around the world. They will continue to do so in the future and are currently looking for a space in Manhattan where they can offer face-to-face courses on a regular basis. Their future plans include developing a curriculum program that will provide in-depth study in a variety of fields and career paths for lighting designers.
In total, over 200 students/participants have participated in online and face-to-face programs since April 2021; 25% of online participants have received scholarships and all high school participants have attended for free.
The Studio School of Design is led by an outstanding group of individuals who bring decades of experience in education, design, non-profit management, media, equity, diversity, inclusion, law, and the lighting industry. Studio School of Design faculty come from the professional community and are focused on recruiting a wide range of highly qualified professionals.
We spoke with Studio School of Design President Mark Stanley and Vice President Clifton Taylor about their plans for the future of this inclusive and multicultural learning environment.
MARK STANLEY – Director, President (Photo by Rosalie O’Connor) and CLIFTON TAYLOR – Director, Vice President, Secretary
“As professional designers and educators, Clifton and I are intimately connected to the intersection of both worlds. Studio School reflects our commitment to providing opportunities for affordable, accessible training in lighting design and related fields. By expanding the pathways to a successful and more diverse, inclusive, education and also providing a gateway to the professional world, we enrich our community and the stories we tell through light and design“, shared Mark Stanley.
Talking about the ways the public and the industry can support their work, Mark added that the “Studio School of Design is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. We rely on contributions to achieve our mission and provide the affordable, and often free, education that is our mission. As a young organization, we need the larger lighting and design communities’ support in order to expand and grow“.
Photo by Rosalie O’Connor
Looking at this coming year’s program, Mark added that “When it comes to their upcoming projects, this spring they are offering 3 courses online: Lighting Live Events for the Camera led by Bob Barnhart, Advanced Vectorworks 3D Drafting, led by Nick Solyom, and a Dance Lighting Intensive, led by Mark Stanley. In addition, Studio School of Design offers networking opportunities and educator training at both the high school and university levels. In the summer of 2023, they will expand their High School Summer Intensive in Lighting Design to a two-week program with the goal of reaching 40 high school students. In addition, they will offer their popular Associates and Assistant Lighting Designer course as well as Business Practices for Freelancers.”
About Mark Stanley: Resident Lighting Designer for New York City Ballet, Mark Stanley has designed over 220 premieres for their repertoire including Paul McCartney’s Ocean’s Kingdom. He has worked with choreographers around the world including Peter Martins, Alexei Ratmansky, Susan Stroman, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, William Forsythe, Kevin O’Day, Susan Marshall and many others. His designs are in the repertoire of nearly every major ballet company in North America and Europe and his designs for George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker and other ballets and operas have been seen on Live from Lincoln Center and Great Performances. Mr. Stanley previously served as Resident Designer for the New York City Opera. His theatre work includes the Kennedy Center, Long Wharf Theater, Goodspeed Opera House, Ordway Music Theater, Paper Mill Playhouse, Maurice Sendak’s Night Kitchen and off-Broadway. Mr. Stanley heads the Lighting Design Program at Boston University and is on the Board of Directors of the Hemsley Lighting Programs.
About Clifton Taylor: For over 34 years, Clifton Taylor has created lighting, projection and scenic designs for theater, dance and opera companies around the world. He has also designed a number of unique concert music events for major orchestras, solo musicians and large-scale venues. His work has been commissioned on Broadway, Off-Broadway, regionally, and in seventeen countries outside the US. Clifton teaches design as an associate professor at UNCSA with additional extensive experience lecturing at NYU, the New York Choreographic Institute, and LDI. He has also had academic appointments at the Juilliard School, The University of Iowa, and the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh Cambodia. He has a long-standing interest in education and is also a current MA candidate in the Adult Education Program at ECU. Clifton is the author of the book on color for lighting designers: “Color and Light, Navigating Color Mixing in the Midst of an LED revolution” which was published by Ones and Zeros Media.
You can learn more about the Studio School of Design at studioschoolofdesign.org.
For over 40 years Patrick Woodroffe has been a guiding force in the lighting for rock concerts, operas, ballet, architecture, and special events. Patrick began his career in lighting in 1973 and since then has lit and directed productions for many artists including, AC/DC, Paul McCartney, The Police, Take That, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Rammstein, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, The Eagles, Donna Summer, Tina Turner, Pet Shop Boys, Michael Jackson, Elton John and many more.
Patrick’s contribution to the lighting industry is tremendous, he has been one of the revolutionary minds behind the evolution of entertainment lighting.
Rolling Stones 14 on Fire (2014) Creative direction + Lighting Design – Patrick Woodroffe, WBD
In the world of rock touring he has lit and directed shows for a long list of iconic artists as diverse as ABBA, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Lady Gaga, Simon and Garfunkel, Adele, Sting and Michael Jackson. He has worked for over thirty years with the Rolling Stones, beginning his association with the band in 1982 and continuing as the band’s lighting designer and creative director for all their live and filmed performances since then. He was one of the curators of Exhibitionism, the band’s traveling exhibition showcasing artifacts and examples of the band’s work over 50 years.
Exhibitionism (2016) Design – Pentagram, Curator – Ileen Gallagher, Curation + Lighting Design – Patrick Woodroffe, WBD
In the classical world, he has lit performances by many singers, conductors, and international orchestras including Jessye Norman, The Three Tenors, Sir George Solti, and the London Symphony Orchestra, Zubin Mehta, André Previn, and Gustavo Dudamel. In opera, he has created works in Vienna, Salzburg, Bregenz, and Helsinki, on occasion using lighting in the place of scenery to convey mood, atmosphere and narrative.
His musical theatre credits include productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, Batman Live, Bat Out of Hell, West Side Story, Mama Mia the Party and Ben Hur Live. He lit the 25th Anniversary Performance of Les Miserables at the O2 Arena and Phantom of the Opera at the Albert Hall. For over twenty years he has lit and helped to produce the famous Vanity Fair Oscar party in Los Angeles and at the Cannes Film Festival.
In film he lit This Is It with Michael Jackson and Martin Scorsese’s Shine A Light, the superb film of the Rolling Stones in performance.
Adele (2016) (Production Design – Es Devlin, Lighting Design – Patrick Woodroffe, WBD
Romeo + Juliet, Vienna State Opera (2001) Director – Jurgen Flimm, Stage + Lighting Design – Patrick Woodroffe
Aside from Entertainment Lighting, Patrick has created some important architectural lighting schemes, including those at the O2 Dome, the Lake of Dreams in Las Vegas, Highgrove House for The King, Prague Castle, the Madejski Garden at the V + A, and Somerset House in London.
In 2012 he lit the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the Olympic + Paralympics Games in London.
London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony (2012) Director – Danny Boyle, Choreography – Akram Khan, Lighting Design – Patrick Woodroffe, WBD
With his long-time collaborator Adam Bassett, he runs the international lighting design consultancy, Woodroffe Bassett Design. The company operates globally designing lighting for many different genres including music, theatrical performance, special events as well as permanent architectural entertainment installations.
Patrick is a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) and in 2014 was awarded OBE by the late Queen for a lifetime of services to the arts.
“I’m so pleased to receive this lifetime achievement award from the LIT Awards, particularly because I join a group of previous honorees who are all from very varied disciplines. They remind me of the familial feeling that exists in the lighting world despite our coming from different ends of the spectrum! As ever, this is an award shared with the many, many collaborators without whom my work would not exist – my partners, associates, programmers, designers and producers. The practice of working with Light, in all its glorious forms, is as much a privilege as it is a job. Thank you.” Patrick Woodroffe.
Skyscape at the Millennium Dome (2000) Design – ESS, Lighting Design – Patrick Woodroffe
Woodroffe Bassett Design (WBD) is one of the best-known and most prolific lighting design brands operating in the world of entertainment and architecture today. The studio was established by lighting designers Patrick Woodroffe and Adam Bassett in 2013. In 2019, Terry Cook, a long-standing and experienced member of the team, joined Patrick and Adam as a partner.
WBD works for an unrivaled network of global clients and is a thriving creative practice focused on providing dynamic, intelligent and often breathtaking lighting design projects across a broad range of genres. WBD has seen few boundaries in its artistic ambition and currently provides full creative service across multiple entertainments and architectural sectors and projects with skill and integrity.
WBD comprises a core team of agile and experienced specialist designers, supplemented by a regular team of associates in the form of lighting directors, programmers, assistants, logistics and planning experts. This group is experienced in working with artists in all disciplines and can interpret and deliver any brief, detailed or otherwise, ensuring their client’s vision is protected and creative ambition often exceeded.
Michael Jackson This Is It (2009) Director – Kenny Ortega, Set Design – Michael Cotton, Lighting Design – Patrick Woodroffe, WBD
Senior lighting and industrial designer, Dave Kavanagh has been working for 44 years at the 110-year-old lighting manufacturer Planet Lighting, Australia. Dave has a unique and impressive career, with an impressive design contribution to the Australian and International lighting community. Dave has been successfully navigating extensive technological changes in the industry!
Not shy of a challenge, Dave has helped bring to life some of the most ambitious custom architectural lighting projects across the globe. He’s worked on renowned projects of architects such as Renzo Piano and I. M. Pei, and helped design and deliver a suite of iconic lighting concepts from South-East Asia to the Middle East, including lighting for Larry Oltmanns Hong Kong Handover at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, I.M.Pei’s Bank of China in Beijing and Caesar Pelli’s Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
As described by former CEO of Planet Lighting, Brett Iggulden, Dave has easily designed more light fittings for architects than any other designer in Australia. “He would literally save architects’ lives, turning their crazy concepts into working, safe and reliable light fittings.” Dave’s work is found everywhere from Australia to Dubai.
Dave also developed, improved, and expanded on a range of important and award-winning Australian medical and task lighting products. His design adaptations of the prestigious Prince Phillip Australian Design Award- winning U-arm, and his work on modernizing task lighting resulted in a range of quintessential Australian medical lighting products such as the MSE, UMH, UGP and include the important redesign of the 7 LED head for the ULED – one of the most prevalent examination lights in Australian hospitals. He designed the iconic Continental C arm, a spring-balanced desk lamp and in 1992 his Ninox Workstation Tasklight won the Luminaire Design Award of the Illuminating Engineering Society of Australia and New Zealand Award (IESANZ).
ULED Medical Light with Planet Lighting unique award-winning floating balance U-arm and fully enclosed springs.
Dave’s successful design and technical proficiency, which his colleagues agree includes his exceptional penmanship and eye for detail, is equally matched by his creative ability to adapt and navigate extraordinary technological and industry change. He saw the transition from pen and ink hand drawings to CAD, and from incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes to modern LEDs as well as the transition from hand machining to Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machining.
“Dave’s legacy is extraordinary,” says Sinclair Park, Dave’s colleague and fellow industrial designer who raised the idea for nominating him for the Award. “He even managed to become an expert in glass mould design when Planet Lighting built their own glass-blowing facility in the 1980s.”
Dave promptly designed a screening process to quickly generate shapes in plaster as patterns for sand casting, equipping Planet Lighting with semi-mass production capabilities. As a result, there was a time when every Starbucks in the world had custom glass luminaires, all of which were glass blown in Planet’s factory and company headquarters in regional Bellingen NSW. Planet Lighting subsequently became the biggest glass-blowing operation in Australia.
Dave’s use and demonstration of scientific and supporting evidence and use of emerging technologies married well with his unhindered propensity to “tell it like it is” to his customers and architect partners.
Dave recalls a successful job tender “a half-inch thick” for Australia’s Parliament House. “They wanted 400 lamps with a hot and inefficient 100-watt globe. So I showed them a light head with 13 watts that had even better light output, and for good measure demonstrated that the entire cost of the light fittings could be recovered in reduced power consumption and lowered air conditioning costs over 18 months.”
DG “Boat” chandeliers to commemorate the Hong Kong handover. Each chandelier is 8.4 meters in length with strips of slumped glass. Each weighs 500 kilograms and is suspended 30 meters in the air.
DG “Boat” chandeliers to commemorate the Hong Kong handover. Each weighs 500 kilograms and is suspended 30 metres in the air. Also showing Dave’s engineering plans for the construction.
Dave graduated with a Diploma in Design from the National Art School, Division of Design in 1975. After college, he was invited by Paul Schremmer and Associates, a leading Sydney design consultancy where he began his first professional role. In April 1977, and less than 2 years out of college, he was hired by the iconic Australian lighting manufacturer Planet Lighting after an interview with then-CEO of Planet, Brett Iggulden. While his current employer thought he was too young, Brett was impressed enough by his interview to put him on a 9-month contract. Now, 44 years on and one of Planet’s oldest and most accomplished staff members, Dave jokingly admits: “I’m still waiting for my probation period to end.”
A thinker and entrepreneurial spirit, Dave heralds from a family of engineers and inventors. “My eldest brother is an electrical engineer, and my older brother was a boat builder who became a hot air balloon manufacturer.” Dave describes himself as coming from a family of “have-a-goes” where it’s ok and even important to make mistakes. He even began his own Medical equipment company, Phoebus Design, while working in tandem at Planet in the 1980s. For 8 years he was an important supplier to Australian Medical Equipment, designing and manufacturing intermittent pressure therapy equipment designed to forcibly drain postoperative lymph fluid.
Dave’s passion for design and its importance in society is palpable. “Lighting is something which touches everyone, every day,” says Dave. “The performance of the most mundane tasks to the most demanding, particularly in medical task lighting is intensely rewarding to me, knowing the products on which I work contribute deeply to such tasks.”
Bank of China HQ, Beijing Architect: I. M. Pei Lighting Consultant: William Artists International. LTD.
“Wheel” Aerial sculpture & chandelier foyer centerpiece 12 meters in diameter and hanging below the 48-meter high ceiling. The wheel, constructed of steel and weighing 350 kilograms, had to be assembled fully and disassembled in pieces for transport in 20m shipping containers. “I had to generate a map of which part of the wheel went into the container first so the first piece that came out could be carried to the back of the assembly area – it was important they came out in the right order!” – Dave Kavanagh
Bank of China, showing wheel aerial sculpture & chandelier also featuring 30 meter steel beam grow lights suspended over bamboo planters.
The wheel, constructed of steel and weighing 350 kilograms, had to be assembled fully and disassembled in pieces for transport in 20-meter shipping containers from Planet Lighting, Australia.
Dave’s interest in design also seems inseparable from his personal interest in both social conscience and design consequence. As a result, he gained the friendship and acquaintances of many academics and pursued interests with like-minded people equally curious about sociology. He was the Public Officer for the establishment of the Bellingen Institute, a think tank endeavor of Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and Adjunct Associate Professor, Dr. Richard Hil.
Dave’s design thinking overlapped and complemented educators promoting the importance of socially and ecologically responsible design. He was invited to guest lecture in the Kansas City’s Art Institute for students of the influential design educator Victor Papanek. “I remember my own final year thesis: Outside and Inside: Morality in Design which was kind of a shock to my lecturers who felt that the topic was a bad idea. I’ve always felt there’s no such thing as a bad idea – it only becomes a bad idea when you don’t express it.”
Dave’s deeply personal drive for social enquiry and social justice has also found him volunteering with his local community. In 2007 Dave worked closely with former Australian father of the year Steve Biddulph and candidate professor and Lecturer in Law, Beth Gibbings in the installation of the SIEV X National Memorial. The memorial consists of a series of 353 pole beams which were erected lakeside in Canberra and are engraved with commemorative artworks from over 200 schools and community groups across the country. The important monument commemorates the 353 people, including children, who drowned when the SIEV X boat sank on its perilous voyage from Indonesia to Australia in 2001. Most of the poles remain nameless as the victims were unidentified. “That’s what the ‘X’ in ‘Suspected Illegal Entry Vehicle X (SIEV X)’ stands for, that is, representing the unknown victims,” says Dave.
The memorial is one of Australia’s largest and most extensive installation and collaborative efforts and spans 400 square meters of the peninsula along Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin. It remains a solemn symbol and reminder to both the government and public on the plight of refugees and a persistent indicator of the still unanswered questions ordinary citizens have with regards to the circumstances surrounding the tragic event.
The SIEV X installation’s arduous process to becoming a permanent display lakeside and nearby Parliament House has become its own emotional journey for Dave and his peers. Originally, the poles were only temporarily “held up” by 600 people during a televised procession in 2006. Dave helped in the certification and engineering effort to establish their permanent installation in the Australian capital. “I met Beth and Steve through the Rural Australians for Refugees organization,” of which Dave is still a formal member. The memorial continues standing today 15 years on. “It still chokes me up when I see those poles.”
Dave Kavanagh continues to innovate at Planet Lighting today and is a valued member of the community.
Dubai Metro – Red and Green Lines Consultant: Gulf Line International Trading Co Multiple custom lighting fixtures were designed including the “Water Wave” and the “Flying Carpet.” The “Water Wave” decorative light fixture in Burjuman Station consists of a wave-like dynamic effect created via LED edge-lit clear glass and is controlled via DMX. The custom-made fixture is made up of 21 pieces of 1-inch thick glass and each piece is made up of three segments. The wave is 40 meters long and 10 meters wide.
Designer Dave Kavanagh shared with us some thoughts on design philosophy, practice and the context of his career with Planet Lighting:
“Joining Planet Lighting in Bellingen New South Wales Australia in April 1977 as the sole Staff Industrial Designer for an agreed tenure of 9 months to design and develop an extended-reach task lamp, I was not too worried about being without experienced designers to mentor and assist me, as it was for such a short duration. Forty-five and a half years later I find myself still in the same job but having experienced massive changes to my work tools and the type of work I have undertaken, including running a small design/manufacturing business in my spare time.
Many designers have experienced the leap from the drawing board to the CAD monitor and I can assure you it can be quite intimidating at first. CAD arrived in my professional life at the age of forty-five, just four years after I first began working on large custom light fittings.
The first large custom fitting was feature-lighting in the Australian Darwin Parliament House. This quickly developed into an explosion of work including feature lighting in the main hall of The Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre for the Hong Kong handover in 1997 and the (then) world’s largest building/s the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, the head office of the Bank of China in Beijing in 2000 and some very large glass fittings in the Dubai Metro UAE. Some of these projects weighed many tonnes and called for engineering certification, including taking a Bellingen crew for installation on-site. We even employed a London-based crew of riggers for one of our higher/heavier fittings. These are just some of the highlights, there being many smaller, less prestigious, jobs along the way and since.
The CEO of Planet Lighting throughout this time was Brett Iggulden OAM who was solely responsible for securing and managing these jobs for our company, a very small business in a very small town in coastal New South Wales Australia. Even though I was integral to the process, it never ceased to delight me that, for instance, for a few years any Starbucks Café anywhere in the world included light fittings using hand-blown glass blown in Bellingen in our own glassworks. This engenders a level of pride in our company workforce that is second to none.
I have always held high moral standards as an important baseline for design work of all kinds and often struggle internally with issues surrounding my work, if not directly impacted by it.
The design process I find most effective uses a recursive progression: two steps forward, one step back and so on until after a few iterations I take many steps back to review the design progression and evaluate the results to ensure the project is heading in a healthy direction before proceeding any further, avoiding “vertical” thinking in the design. This re-evaluation applies to all aspects of a project or product and includes all stakeholders and has worked well for me over many years.
Perhaps the most important mindset to nurture for me as a designer has been that there is no such thing as a stupid question … ever. Question everything and everyone, and always have a reason for your choices and decisions.
Once a brief or work order is accepted, it becomes a personal responsibility for eternity. At no time is a job handed over with no further responsibility or “ownership” by the industrial designer, production designer or engineer. This demands a passionate embrace of the work and its consequences.
Finally, this award was an unexpected bonus in a long and as-yet incomplete journey which has been an enormous amount of fun and I unreservedly thank all those who have contributed to my success in this career.” Dave Kavanagh
Dave Kavanagh/ Courtesy of Planet Lighting
The “Flying Carpet” lighting fixture, one of six, was installed in different stations of Dubai Metro. The fixture is 27 metres in length, 2.5 metres wide and comprises 140 individual glass assemblies. Each glass piece weighs 70 kilograms and the total fixture weighs 11.5 tons.
About Planet Lighting: The Planet Lighting design tradition heralds back to the early 1900s when founder WA Iggulden set up Bentley Mfg Co in Melbourne to produce building tools for patented designs. Since the 1930s Planet has been manufacturing lights, including the iconic Australian classic, the Studio K desk lamp. Over the years, our facilities have expanded to include handblown artisan glassblowing facilities, a high-tech LED laboratory and state-of-the-art CNC equipment to ensure high-quality in-house capability and a comprehensive approach to lighting manufacturing.
Today, we are one of the leading Australian suppliers of Medical & Surgical lights, LED and custom lighting solutions and are uniquely placed to provide the expertise and know-how required to work with lighting designers and specifiers to realize creative custom lighting ideas and concepts.
