Lighting Design
Intermediate 1 and 2
Lighting Design
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How to plan the essay
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Paragraph 1
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Paragraph 2
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Introduction -using your own personal knowledge of
lighting from your research. The page entitled Light Facts
may help. Slide 4
First piece of lighting (modern/contemporary). Remember to
introduce the design by writing about who designed it.
Describe it in detail. Analyse this using the Analysing
Lighting pages. Slides 5 -7
You can write notes on each area first and then write a
paragraph on the piece. Use help on slide 8
Second piece of lighting (historical). Analyse this in
exactly the same way as the first.
Describe the similarities, if there are any, between the
two pieces. Are they the same type of lights? Do they look
similar in any way? Are they both made from similar
materials? If there are no similarities then you will need to
write more for the next paragraph.
Describe the differences between the two designs.
Which light appeals to you most? Why? Give reasons.
Short conclusion – any other comments about the two
designs that you have been looking at?
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Paragraph 3
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Paragraph 4
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Paragraph 5
Paragraph 6
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Your essay should be approximately 1000 words. Maximum length (i.e. do not write
any more than this) is 1500 words.
Light facts
• Translucent = to let light through
• Lighting is not just for domestic
interiors (the home). It is for
public buildings, cafes, bars and
restaurants.
• Lighting can create atmosphere in a
space.
• Floor lighting, wall lighting, table
lighting, spotlights will all give a
space a very different look.
Analysing Lighting
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Like any other area of design, Lighting has been designed. A designer has worked through a similar design
process that we work through at school. The designs that you are looking at are their solutions.
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When studying each Lighting Design, consider the following:
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Form
What does the light look like? Describe it
in detail. Imagine the person reading your essay has
not seen the light.
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Function
What is the function? Is it a free standing light, a
ceiling light, a chandelier, a floor light…?
Does it look as if it would be suitable to be this
particular type of light. Give reasons for your
answer.
more
Analysing Lighting
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Target market
What type of home or public space might it
be for? What style would this fit into?
What age group of customer would buy
this do you think?
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Materials used
What materials have been used in this
piece of lighting? If you do not have this
information, then make a sensible guess.
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Has the design
been successful?
Do you think that the designer has
succeeded in creating a good design? An
important point to consider, would the
target market buy it? Would there be any
safety issues?
Analysing Lighting
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Your opinion
This is the most important part of your
essay. You might really like or dislike the
examples of lighting that you have been
looking at. You are not expected to like
everything that you see. As long as you
can justify your opinions about a design
then your views will be valued. You have
to give reasons; for example “I do not like
this design as I do not think that the
colours used complement each other.” Or
maybe “The scale (size) of this light would
be too big for a domestic interior.”
Remember to give reasons.
Words that you may find
helpful
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Attached
Chandelier
Classic
Colourful
Constructed (made)
Contemporary (modern)
Contrasting (opposites)
Curvaceous (curved)
Detailed
Dull
Expensive
Fragile
Freestanding (not attached)
Heavy
Manufactured
Moulded
Neutral (plain colours, beiges etc)
Opaque (doesn’t let light through)
Opulent (rich)
Patterned
Reflective
Robust (strong, not easily broken)
Rough
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Rounded
Scale
Shiny
Size
Sleek
Strong
Surface
Textured
Translucent (lets light through)
Wall mounted
Contemporary* Lighting
Designer: Tord Boontje
• *contemporary = modern
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Tord Boontje is from a
place called Enschede in
the Netherlands (Holland).
He was born in 1968.
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He studied Industrial
Design at the Design
Academy in Eindhoven
(Netherlands)
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He then moved to London
where he studied at the
Royal College of Art.
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His studio is currently in
south-east London. (see
opposite)
Contemporary* Lighting
Designer: Tord Boontje
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*contemporary = modern
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Most famous for his “Garland”
light. (see opposite)
This is made of metal and is
just wrapped around a plain
light bulb. This gives the
person who has purchased the
light the freedom to arrange
it as they wish around the
bulb. It is available in
silver colour and gold colour.
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The light sells for £15 and
Tord is pleased about this:
‘It makes it an affordable,
democratic product.’
Contemporary* Lighting
Designer: Tord Boontje
• *contemporary = modern
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His work features flowers, animals,
birds and insects.
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His work is seen as magical and
romantic.
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He produced a collection of lights,
tables and vases etc. that he
called the ‘Wednesday Collection’.
He called it this because Wednesday
‘is a mid-week day and these are
all things for every day, things to
live with.’
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opposite:
Midsummer light. Materials: Two layers of
strong synthetic paper with a cone inside
that keeps the paper away from the light
bulb.
The light comes in a flat packaging and
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has a finished size of diameter 50 x 70 cm.
The light is made in 5 different colours;
white, fuchsia pink, sky blue, fire and
lemon/lime.
Contemporary* Lighting
Designer: Tord Boontje
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*contemporary = modern
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Who and what inspires his
work? Where does he draw
inspiration from?
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‘I constantly look at
contemporary art and craft.
Historical sources are
important to me too. I always
research whenever I work on
something new to try and
become aware of the subject.
Fashion is a great inspiration
for me – I love the
experimentation and the speed
with which ideas are tested.
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Opposite:
white.
Midsummer light in
I am always drawn to things
that are conceptually (about
ideas) and visually exciting.
Sometimes just going for a
walk in the park where I live
is the most inspiring thing –
seeing a shadow, a puddle or a
leaf.’
Contemporary* Lighting
Designer: Tord Boontje
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*contemporary = modern
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What inspired Tord Boontje to
work in lighting?
‘Darkness. Often we have too
much light. Also light can be
a powerful tool to influence a
space. I like the dappled
light in forests, and the
glitter and sparkle of ice,
cities, crystals and parties.’
Above: Midsummer light in lemon/lime
Contemporary* Lighting
Designer: Tord Boontje
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*contemporary = modern
• For more information on Tord
Boontje and to see more of
his designs go on to his
website:
• www.tordboontje.com
Contemporary* Lighting
Sharon Marston Lighting
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Specialising in the design and production of lighting.
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Exploring the properties of modern materials to create
sculptural organic forms.
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The range includes pendants, wall-mounted, table, floor
standing lights and fibre Optics lights.
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Public, commercial and private commissions undertaken.
Contemporary* Lighting
Sharon Marston Lighting
Above
Title: filament panel detail
'Bluebird Restaurant'
Materials: polypropylene,
mono-filament and fibre
optics
Dimensions (cm): L375 x D25
x H225
Contemporary* Lighting
Sharon Marston Lighting
Spiral Pleat table light
Dimensions
H 45cm
W 30cm
D 30cm
Materials
Woven nylon
Colours
White, lilac, pale blue, gold,
pink
Contemporary* Lighting
Sharon Marston Lighting
Lunar table light
Dimensions
H 40cm
W 20cm
D 20cm
Material
perspex, polypropylene,
steel base
Colours
white
Retail price
£165
Contemporary* Lighting
Sharon Marston Lighting
Lunar table light
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Dimensions
H 40cm
W 20cm
D 20cm
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Material
perspex, polypropylene,
steel base
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Colours
white
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Retail price
£165
Contemporary* Lighting
Sharon Marston Lighting
*contemporary = modern
For more information on Sharon
Marston and to see more of her
designs go on to her website:
www.sharonmarston.com
**** On the website you cannot copy the chandeliers
onto a document as they are moving images. All
other lights would appear to be o.k. ****
Historical lighting designer:
Louis Comfort Tiffany
1848-1933
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Tiffany's lifelong fascination with
light led to his innovations in stained
glass but also inspired him to find
new ways to incorporate electric
lighting into his designs. Beginning
in 1885, with his work on the
Lyceum Theatre in New York,
Tiffany pioneered the artistic
adaptation of the light bulb. A few
years later he created distinctive
metalwork and blown-glass lighting
fixtures for the Havemeyer house,
but it was not until 1899 that he
publicly introduced his first table
lamps with bulbs shielded by
colourful leaded-glass shades.
• The majority of Tiffany
lampshades were essentially
leaded-glass windows
wrapped around a light source.
Composed of intricate
arrangements of semi
translucent pieces, they were
perfect complements for early
electric bulbs, shielding the
eyes from the bright light and
directing it downward. They
provided soft illumination
inside a delightfully artistic
object.
Historical lighting designer:
Louis Comfort Tiffany
1848-1933
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After his father's death in 1902,
Tiffany became vice president and
artistic director of Tiffany and
Company. His familiarity with
jewelry manufacturing at the firm,
as well as the collaboration with
his father on several pieces for the
Paris Exposition Universelle in
1900, undoubtedly inspired him to
produce jewelry at his own
workshops. He began
experimenting, in much secrecy,
with the design and fabrication of
jewelry intending to introduce his
work at the 1904 Louisiana
Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.
Historical lighting designer:
Louis Comfort Tiffany
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Although designed and
constructed in much the same way
as the windows, the shades
differed in that each was
assembled on a solid wooden form
and utilized a prescribed cartoon
to indicate the shapes of the
individual pieces of glass. For
custom-made lighting, several
sketches might be drawn. Once the
composition was approved, it was
translated into a watercolour
cartoon, with thick dark outlines
indicating the placement of the
leading. The cartoons often show
only a section of the design, which
was repeated several times
around the shade.
• This process resulted in a
certain amount of conformity
among the shades produced
at Tiffany Studios. The
degree to which they varied
depended upon the palette
and the different kinds of
glass selected. Each artisan
needed a painter's sense of
colour to balance the
multitude of subtle chromatic
nuances, as he or she
selected and joined literally
hundreds of pieces into
complex compositions. It
took a skilled worker as long
as a week just to choose and
cut the hundreds of pieces of
glass.
Historical lighting designer:
Louis Comfort Tiffany
• By 1906 more than 125
shades could be
ordered from Tiffany
Studios; prices ranged
from $30 for lamps with
small shades in
geometric designs to
$750 for those with
most elaborate floral
patterns. Even at the
lower price range, the
lamps were considered
luxury goods.
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Despite their great appeal, Tiffany
remained ambivalent about his
lamps. The leaded-glass shades
were left out of his lavish biography
by Charles de Kay, which included
every other medium in which he
worked. His plan of designing
unique decorative objects for the
home conflicted philosophically with
the manufacture of items, such as
the shades, in multiples. The
patterns, models, and increasing
volume of orders led to uniformity,
and the conflict between the
reproduced object and the ideal of a
unique work of art must have been
difficult for Tiffany to reconcile in his
role as a creative artist.
Historical lighting designer:
Louis Comfort Tiffany
This is one of Tiffany's most effective floral
lamps, with its subtly toned buds and
blossoms cascading from the shade crown to
its irregular border formed by creamy colortinged petals. A variety of glass was used to
replicate the color and texture of both the
flower and the watery bog, seen in the
translucent rippled blue glass between the
pink opalescent stems. The organic character
of the lamp is accentuated by the bronze
support, which replicates broad, flat lily pads
clustered around a base with climbing stems
that disappear into the blossomed shade.
Lotus (or Water-lily) table lamp, 1904–15
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933)
American
Tiffany Studios (1902–1938)
Leaded Favrile glass with bronze base,
H. 26 1/2 in. base; 14 5/8 in. shade (67.3; 37.2 cm)
Historical lighting designer:
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Many of Tiffany's lamp designs were
adaptations of motifs from Tiffany's
windows. The spring flowers wisteria,
magnolia, and peony were among his
favourites. The peony is seen here in a
profusion of blossoms, which vary
slightly in colour around the lamp in hues
ranging from pale pink to deep red
amidst verdant leafy foliage. The size
and shape of the individual pieces of
glass mimic the actual petals and leaves
of the flower itself.
Elaborate peony shade with standing lamp, 1904–15
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933)
American
Tiffany Studios (1902–1938)
Leaded Favrile glass, bronze
H. 63 x Diam. 22 in. (160 x 55.9 cm.)
Inscribed: (on shade) Tiffany Studios New York;
(on base) Tiffany Studios New York
Background to Art Nouveau
(style of Tiffany lamps)
Art Nouveau was a late 19
th
Century international design
movement (trend). The
Art Nouveau
timeline for
was mid 1880’s to approx
1910.
Art Nouveau involved design,
architecture and the
decorative arts.
• Art Nouveau used the
natural world as inspiration
for designs. Flowers, leaves
and birds are common
features of work.
Background to Art Nouveau
(style of Tiffany lamps)
Words used to describe
Nouveau
Art
work:
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Decorative
Elegant
Ornamental
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Elongated shapes
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Flowing lines
Stylish
Natural motifs (images)
Detailed
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Designers whose work was in this
style are as follows:
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Louis Comfort Tiffany 1848-1933
(lamps and glassware)
Charles Rennie Mackintosh 18681928 (architecture, furniture, textile
design, interior design, painting)
Antoni Gaudi 1852-1926
(architecture)
Emile Galle 1846-1904 (glass and
furniture)
Rene Lalique 1827-1886 (jewellery
and glassware)
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(tall as if stretched)
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