VMSD - April 2016 - (Page 56)

CHECKING OUT Interview by Kaileigh Carly Hagedon Peyton Jill Klores It took venturing into new experiences for the Dallas-based Essential Light Design Studio founder and owner to discover where she wanted to be. Now she runs her own business where she's free to focus on her clients. When did you realize architecture was the right field for you? I think when a kid wants to be an architect, they draw pictures of something that inspires them, whether that's a little house with a chimney or interesting architecture they've seen. I pretty much drew lots of different rectangles with windows. It finally took me going through physics and photography classes to rediscover architecture and realize, yeah, this is where I wanted to be all along. So how did architecture translate to lighting design? My degree was a bachelor's in environmental design, which exposed me to different aspects within architecture. We spent each week of that semester looking at all the different disciplines, doing a tiny project on each one to make sure we understood them. Lighting was one of them, and I 56 APRIL 2016 | VMSD.COM thought, "This is really cool." I went on to take a year of architectural lighting and that lit a fire under me, and I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is fabulous." What's a memorable design job you worked on early in your career? In 1991, there was a major Canadian corporation that had a collection of sculpted ceramic Van Why do you think you were most passionate about lighting? I think it's a synthesis of design and technology. You're using the whole brain - the right and the left brain - and being creative, but you also need to make sure that you're covering the technical issues. It's that combination of solving a design problem with the technology you have and can manipulate. The combination of science and art together is extremely satisfying. How did Essential Light Studio come about? I think I've always known that I wanted to run my own business, because my dad runs his own business. There's no boundaries when you're running your own gig. He's actually pushed me a couple [of] times when I expressed frustration at my jobs, and he said, "Just run your own." But he knew I'd do it when I was ready. There came a point where I didn't see eye to eye with the person I was working with, and I felt more beholden to my clients than I actually did to my employers; the clients were really the ones that needed to be taken care of. And I thought, "I can do this; I can take care of my clients and not be bogged down with other things." x Gogh heads that were to be hung on the wall in the reception area. They were at three-quarter size of an actual head, so it was kind of odd. But each one of these heads was done in the style of Van Gogh's periods, so there were maybe 14 of them, and one even had an ear cut off. They were striking, beautiful and disturbing. The client wanted these to glow and hover along this back wall. We used all kinds of lenses and louvers and snoots to control the light, because our only tool back then was halogen for this type of job. It took a lot of fussing, but it came out wonderfully, and it was exactly what the client wanted. DAN PIAS S IC K, DALL AS Where'd you grow up and go to school? I'm from New York City originally, but I went to the University of Colorado, where I started in physics and then photography; then found my way to architecture. It was the classic "finding yourself in college" story, and it turned out that the university had a degree in architectural illumination at its college of engineering. And at the time - back in the late '80s - that was one of only two architectural lighting design specialties in North America. Brought to Light http://www.VMSD.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of VMSD - April 2016

VMSD - April 2016
Contents
From the Editor
VMSD Editorial Advisory Board
The Goods
Next Store
Ones to Watch
Seoul Searching
Tuned Up
Going to Market
Mannequins: For Fun and Profit
Showroom
Ad Index
Checking Out

VMSD - April 2016