General Commentary – The Lumenique BLOG

It Is Time for Lighting to Become a Licensed Profession

There are a few folks who are going to hate this post, and I sympathize with them. But, it’s time we stop skirting around what we all know. Lighting needs to be elevated as a profession, and I believe licensure is key to that.

Professional Licensure is a Necessity for Credibility

Architecture, Structural, Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering are licensed professionals, as these practices have the potential for causing harm to human occupants, the environment, and their clients. These professions operate under the guidance and direction of code authorities, and best practices, which establish the foundation for safety, security, and asset protection.

General contractors, and most sub contractors are licenced practitioners. All must pass qualifications of time (including apprenticeship) and academic knowledge.

Circadian Light – Is it Reality or a Manifestation of Cognitive Bias?

The Lighting Industry suffers chronically from the ‘Law of the Instrument’ – a form of cognitive bias:

If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail.
Abraham Maslow

To Illustrate

Why I Blew Off Lightfair 2021

I won’t bother with Lightfair 2021 for several reasons. With only 233 exhibitors, it is smaller than LEDucation will be in the spring (usually tops 275 exhibitors). To put this in perspective, this is less than 1/3 a typical LF show of the past, covering less than 1/4 of the floor space. This will make it the smallest version of this show since 1983, when it was called LightWorld.

Looking at the exhibitor list exposes it for what it is. A bit of an over-marketed regional show for an odd collection of exhibitors – at best. This is not a national caliber showcase of the industry.

Exclusivity of Works Offered

The objects created and offered through Lumenique are not production products. Lumenique is the name of my design studio, not a product manufacturing organization.

The following is extracted from my Terms page, describing how I characterize and keep records of completed works.

Provenance Record Keeping

Every product made is identified by a unique serial number code label placed on its base. This serial number is logged into the Lumenque database with a reference image and description, and data indicating the item completion date, and type of work coded (see definitions below.) The unique serial number can also be used to replace a work that has been destroyed – with proof and return of the remains of the destroyed item, on which a quote for replacement will be issued for approval prior to remaking the lost work. For this reason, we recommend keeping a record of the serial number for future reference.

Definitions of Terms Used

So Many Updates!

Hot off the web! Updates, new objects, fresh content, oh my! The Lumenique web site has been updated once more. Take a look, and you will find:

New Objects!

Artifact

Villa

The Transition from Design to Art

As I transition from design to artistic pursuits, there are several areas of difference that have come to me. Rather than blather on with words, I sketched a few cartoons that express the observations, in a series I am labeling “Designer vs. Artist”. I’ll add more over time.

Dear Fellow Creatives

Allow me to introduce myself in a way that a resume and LinkedIn profile is unable to. I offer the following brief illustrated run down of my career in 10 Acts. Sort of a Play of evolving interests that leads me to offering you a new resource. I hope you have a moment to enjoy this adventure as much as I have. Who knows, perhaps we might one day find ourselves on a shared path.

To start, I am an artist at heart, and have been for a very long time. My first punishment in grammar school was for using my imagination to color a birds in a manner the nuns did not appreciate. This, combined with other similar incidents of expressed independence, led to my being removed from Catholic school to be placed in a conventional grammar school where my “unique” approach would not present disrupt the order of the Rigid Penguin Queens.

I come from a background of a mother who was exceptionally talented in art, and a father who was an engineer and math professor, and a multi-generational family of entrepreneurs. My father showed me the way of being a professional adult, my mother the path to artistic expression. While this duality has afforded me insight into two worlds that rarely share the same space, it has suited me particularly well in lighting – which is why I spent so many years in the industry.

What I Can Do for You at Lumenique

Every designer has instances where they want to see a special idea or concept realized to fill a small, but essential need or want, but cannot find a path to see it realized. I know this, as I was a designer that started making things for my own projects to fill this need – which led to the formation of Lumenique.

**Custom Frame Mount LED Picture Light**

The need for something special may be as simple as a small iconic accent applied to a wall or door, a corporate image piece, a center piece at a corporate entry desk or conference table, a side table or dining table light that functions as accent source of illumination while making an artistic design statement. These are the inspired details that add nuance and depth, that makes a design pop – but are too frequently set aside for want of a source to make them real.

33 NPD Thoughts for Growing Companies

After several decades involvement in product design and development, I’ve accumulated a few basic ideas I believe are useful for small product manufacturer businesses looking to build NPD into a driver for future growth. I pulled together 33 thoughts, updated and collected into a small book for anyone interested. Each topic is described in less than 400 words to provide the reader insight without getting too deep into the academics of each one.

You can download a copy for your use below:

npd33-k.-willmorth Download

Bedroom Lighting for that Restful Sleep

Bedroom

The Great Blue Light Panic Keeping Some Folks Awake

If you read alarmist comments on the inter-webs about the dreaded “Blue Light Hazard”, you may come away thinking that your TV, tablet, phone, and LED bedside lights are depriving you of sleep. Yes, the spectral power content, including blue light, can produce amplified melatonin suppression that can indeed disrupt your ability to fall asleep. And, yes, LED lights and many LED based displays do produce blue light at the wavelengths of greatest concern. We’ve been all over this, and there have been thousands of other discussions on this everywhere, including in mainstream media – which for the most part get it all wrong. Continue reading “Bedroom Lighting for that Restful Sleep”