Archilumo is a Dutch startup launching a very interesting range of planar LED architectural lighting. I’ve long wondered why fixture manufacturers don’t explore more interesting forms of flat, planar lighting – given the propensity of architects to want to treat … Continue reading archilumo
Signify is slowly revealing more of its commercial-scale 3D-printing program, launching the consumer-focused offering “Philips MyCreation” in the Netherlands and Germany. MyCreation allows home consumers to mix and match from a massive variety of styles and colors to build their … Continue reading signify’s 3D-printed “MyCreation” series
Lightwave Laser is a Santa Rosa, California based company that makes a variety of architectural-scale laser-cut panels. They have a nice collection of back-lit application examples. Like my work with Luminous Patterns, I believe this area embedded luminous architecture is ripe for innovative new concepts. Continue reading lightwave laser
More exquisite papercut lightbox art: Hari & Deepti are husband-and-wife Mumbai-based artists exploring the beauty of layered, luminous papercut art. Some gorgeous inspiration for lighting designers, stage designers, etc. And what an incredible tool for teaching lighting students an understanding … Continue reading hari & deepti
Vibes Genius is a small crafts company I ran across on Pinterest that makes beautiful little layered papercut light boxes. The effect of the layered depth and translucency of the paper with the scenography of the illustrations creates some striking … Continue reading vibes genius
Over the years Audi has continued to impress with creative concepts using cutting-edge technology for their automotive headlights and taillights. Here are a couple recent videos: The first showcases what is possible when headlights become interactive 1 megapixel digital projectors, … Continue reading audi headlight concept videos
Back at the Integrated Systems Europe 2019 show, LG’s professional signage group demo’d their transparent OLED screens front-and-center in their massive booth. They’ve now launched a complete website with a real product on the market. Transparent OLED is interesting because … Continue reading LG’s transparent OLED tech
Sony presented a beautiful installation called “Affinity in Autonomy” that explored future relationships with robotics of various sorts. The installation was beautifully conceived, using both darkness and luminous splashes of vivid blended-pastel colors to create a wonderful experiential sequence. But … Continue reading milan 2019: sony’s affinity in autonomy
The investment conglomerate Investindustrial created a massive 4,000 sqm presence for its newly organized Design Holding portfolio of companies, including Flos, B&B Italia, and Louis Poulsen. Most impressive was a beautiful interactive entryway installation. Depicting fun caricatures of the famous … Continue reading milan 2019: design holding – interactive installation
The future is dim for preset-scene lighting controls We are entering a future where architectural design and its associated technology systems are increasingly focused on experience management as the primary end-goal of many projects. New technology systems, such as digital … Continue reading media-driven vs data-driven environments
The Entrepreneurs is an interesting and well-produced podcast from Monocle. Episode 381 from 30 January 2019 contains a great interview with the two founders of Plumen, the startup that introduced decorative CFL lamps in 2010. Plumen was always a bit of … Continue reading plumen: the entrepreneurs podcast
One of the best examples of lighting design at the 2019 Salone del Mobile surprisingly did not come from any of the lighting companies, but from the booth design of Italian architectural surfaces manufacturer Cleaf. Designed by Bestetti Associati, the … Continue reading milan 2019: cleaf booth design
In the Feb/Mar 2019 issue of ARC Magazine, the editorial team asked me and a few other speakers from the Light School sessions at the Surface Design Show to elaborate our opinions on “wellness lighting.” Here was my response: There … Continue reading wellness lighting
I simply LOVE these Pininfarina concept renderings of their new Battista electric super car. A touch ’80s retro, but my eyes just can’t help seeing architectural shapes. I love the subtle graphic patterning of the light, nice inspiration for architectural … Continue reading lush with light
Microsoft has injected new life into its Kinect system, a sophisticated camera vision platform. They’ve shrunk the hardware, improved the specs and now tie it to the Azure computing platform to augment it with a lot of computational horsepower on-demand. … Continue reading microsoft kinect dk
Let’s take a look at lighting and digital media trends in athletic facilities. All of the lighting and signage in a sports facility, from the center line of the court/field/pitch to the ends of the farthest parking lots, have become … Continue reading trends in digital media for athletic facilities
As usual, last week’s Integrated Systems Europe 2019 had some stunning large-scale LED screens on display. For those of you not familiar, these are direct-view LEDs, typically configured on panels that can built up into large-scale, seamless video walls. These … Continue reading ise 2019: the big LED walls
“Data-driven” architectural lighting and digital media? “Ambient communications” for architectural spaces? What does that all mean and how will it drive future concepts of lighting and A/V design? Thanks to everyone who attended my presentation at the #ise2019 Smart Building Conference exploring … Continue reading smart building conference 2019: ambient communications
At the opening keynote of the Integrated Systems Europe 2019 show, we were treated to a presentation from projection mapping artist Bart Kresa. Polish-born and now based in Santa Monica, Kresa showed several projects that were an absolute feast for … Continue reading bart kresa studio
Wiliot is a spin-out tech startup based in San Diego and Israel that has developed a small Bluetooth chip that can power itself by harvesting energy from common wireless signals. The chip can be connected directly to certain types of … Continue reading wiliot
