How we work
We are often asked ‘can you do us a design if we send you through a set of plans.’ The answer is that a set of plans is vital but it’s only part of the equation: to really make the most of the lighting design we need to fully understand the architecture, the interior design, and how you are going to use the space. The overall look and feel that you are trying to achieve has a tremendous impact on the lighting design: we would approach a modern minimalist project very differently from one where a client wanted to retain an old cottage feel.
The more detail we know about what’s going in to the house the better, for example knowing where the bath is going to go is useful but knowing that it’s going to be a modern freestanding Phillipe Stark bath might mean that uplighting it with ground recessed LEDs would look stunning. We also need to understand your practical requirements, such ensuring we provide good shadow free light where people might shave or put make up on, or if there are likely to be young children in the house using only ‘cool to the touch’ fittings anywhere where they might be reached.
Often this is an iterative process: clients come to see us very early in the build process as they find it useful for us to input in to their thought process at this stage. Then either we, the client or another interior designer develop things like interior layouts and key interior details, and we then re-meet to discuss the lighting in this context.
After having really understood the architecture, interiors and your lifestyle requirements we:
- do an initial lighting design and fittings/control system cost schedule.
- discuss and agree these with you.
- do a more detailed technical specification for the electrician/builder/project manager.
- brief the electrician/builder/project manager.
- provide either phone or onsite support and checking as is required during the build. The amount of this varies hugely depending on how much change there is during a project (for example in old house renovations architectural plans can be quite fluid for a long time), and how complex the project is.
- check and ‘fine tune’ the installation at the end, for example, making sure that fittings are angled to light the particular feature/painting that they were designed to light. It’s great to work with you to get the detail perfectly tuned at this point.
- commission and programme the lighting control system, and train you on how to use it. We will refine the initial lighting control system programming based on your feedback when you’ve lived in the space for a period of time.