The near-term realizable promise of LED

The near-term realizable promise of LED for lighting designers and engineers is that it is the one tool that will not only restore their full range of creative options, but that will also give them a bigger canvas to paint on than they ever had before.
The truth is that there are good solid state lighting solutions that are available today for a rapidly growing number of applications. Lighting design innovators realize that, and are investing in their own knowledge-base, and relationships, to effectively pick those winners.
The right knowledge-base will allow designers, specifiers and other decision makers to know what they're looking at, what kind of subjective evaluations to apply, and what questions to ask to assure themselves that what they see is what they'll get, both today and a few years down the road.

Luxury is dead, the brand killed it!

brand: mark made by burning to indicate ownership

There was a time where the fashion designer was the founder and owner of the company. It had the upper hand on the style and the research, creating objects that were desired and acquired by a limited audience. It was also a way of approaching, treating and considering the customer in his individuality. Real luxury was something designed “for you and nobody else”.

This has changed drastically with the advent of the “democracy of luxury”. The brands have begun to put their name on all kinds of products, from sunglasses to mobile phones. The presence in the luxury shops of affordable accessories has attracted a wider and more popular audience of consumers. Zara and Prada are mixed together. Everything is luxury because nothing is luxury. The fascination of the logo and the possibility to get objects of desire at an affordable price appeals to a large audience. The drawback is the leveling down of the quality.

In industrial design, there is a parallel discourse of “democratic design” to make available objects of good design at affordable prices. After the wave of innovation, which took place in the three decades following the Second World War, apart in information technology, the level of innovation in other areas of production has been low, with a strong tendency to follows the designs already proposed by the first innovators. Today the volume of sales for major design brands is clearly realized with products designed in the 60s and 80s of last century.

The rate at which new models reach the market does not reflect true innovation and advance in technology, but rather reproduces the road already traveled in the recent past. Basically it is all about copying, but smoothing out the most radical lines not to frighten the average public. As a result, products without a soul pile up unsold in the showrooms, often not surviving from one exhibition to another. When you turn off the ethics and only profit remains, it becomes difficult to produce quality and not just a rhetorical copy of what was already seen.

This opens up space for companies paying greater attention to factors such as originality and ability to “tell a story” with the product, to the quality of the materials, and to the relationship with a client who just despise commonality. The first buyers are often wealthy customers who want unique products and follow the traditional concept of luxury through precious materials and workmanship. But there is also a sophisticated audience which is attentive to products’ quality and exclusivity without the ostentation of the brand.

Potential of LED control systems

Since the LED is a dimmable light source, the modular control of LEDs of different color allows a very precise shifting, fading and transitions of light, which in turn transmits a dynamic effect to the architecture set to ultimately communicate the idea of change and adaptability. The underlying purpose is to render architecture more efficient and sustainable, by creating a more comfortable, responsive and consistent relationship between the users and the architectural space.

Color mixing and color effects are seen as a powerful tool, positively provocative to our perception. Changing color can suggest moods and bring a healthy variability to the task of space-making. But this dimension of technology does not define a space by itself, as some extreme proponents of “interactive architecture” would have you believe. On the contrary, depending on how it is applied, it may even condemn spaces to becoming void of any kind of life. And this can happen fast.

Light always has a story to tell

the eye instinctively turns towards the light in order to see.

Lighting has a great significance to our well-being, health and safety. This is why it is such an important element in building and interior decoration.

Light is electromagnetic radiation invisible to the eye. Light only becomes visible when it meets a surface. Colors are formed by waves of different lengths, and when combined together produce white light. When white light is refracted through a prism, the whole color spectrum becomes visible, as in a rainbow. The human eye is only sensitive to the range of the “visible light” wavelengths, which is between 380 nm and 780 nm. The extreme ends of the scale being ultraviolet (UV) and infra-red (IR) light.

The human eye is perfectly able to adjust to the great variations of luminosity found in nature, from moon light (1 lux) to bright sunshine (100,000 lux). In artificial lighting conditions, we usually have to compensate for minor variations, from general lighting (1-2,000 lux) to working light (200-2,000 lux).

Our vision is based on light. The eye instinctively turns towards the light in order to see. Some 80% of all information is received through the eye.

When we step into a room, our eyes circle it guided by light, and the light tells us the story of the room: its shapes, colors, architecture, decoration, ornaments etc. A good lighting makes seeing easy and pleasant. It is a treat for the eyes.

A simple life

Modern interior design and minimal living need not be cold and stern looking, nor should its serenity be purely monastic. It need not be so cutting edge either, that it becomes unusable or ugly. The essence is to find the level of simplicity that suits anyone of us. The only requirement is honesty to the materials and a respect of space.

Rooted in part in Japanese culture, minimalism, or one of its many incarnations, is a movement that started, originally in Scandinavia and Japan, as a reaction to the emergence of commercialized styles of architecture that was popping up everywhere with the idea of “less is more”. Minimalist design is concerned with minimizing the use of ornaments and “grandiose” designs in the structures. A few of minimalism’s attributes are geometric shapes, light, natural materials, space. A successful minimalist design is a result of a good balance of these elements. Minimal is not poor, it is essential. Essential in this case means that few materials set the stage for perhaps one or two important focus pieces. The quality of materials and workmanship must be outstanding.

Minimalist architecture is sometimes described as being cold, but advocates of this style find it more welcoming, relaxing and free from clutter. Depending on how it is planned, minimalist architecture can be elegant and at the same time, inviting. It makes use of the space as a feature and uses basic shapes and lines that are neat and can play with light resulting in an elegant outcome. There are many examples where the flow of space and light create the decoration without the confusion of ornamentation. Simple spaces gives rise to a more relaxed and tranquil life. In essence, living with less and finding more.