Hospitality Design - May 2018 - 58

advertorial

Q&A

with

levi wilson
founder and VP Design, Hammerton Lighting
How different does Hammerton look
today vs. ﬁve years ago?
The company looks dramatically different.
Contemporary design and glass are now core
components of our business, even though many
still remember Hammerton as the company
that popularized rustic pinecone-laden steel
chandeliers. Five years ago Hammerton did very
little glass fabrication in-house; today we blow,
fuse and slump literally tons of glass every month.
Hammerton has also grown tremendously,
and our hospitality business has become global.
We've developed an unusual skill set in craftbased value engineering, which allows us
to deliver compelling design value across all
hospitality segments.

Your heritage is in metal fabrication.
Why have you moved into glass?
Hammerton is known for pushing the boundaries
of lighting design, so we're continuously
broadening our capabilities. Glass is a very broad
platform for design innovation. Surprisingly, it's
our expertise in metal that allows us to do unusual
work in glass, because we fabricate all our jigs and
tooling in-house.

What differentiates Hammerton from
competitors in the marketplace?
We're an American manufacturer with deep
expertise in custom lighting design, engineering
and fabrication across a wide range of materials
and styles. Hospitality clients rely on Hammerton
to solve problems, not just build lights.

What is Hammerton's approach toward
customization?
The majority of our production is custom,
and ranges from one-off $100,000 signature
chandeliers to high-volume runs of sub-$200
corridor sconces. So our entire business is
optimized around delivering a superior custom
solution. We scale lights to custom sizes, work
with customer-specified materials, value engineer,
and create entirely new designs from scratch.
Our custom work often represents a feat
of engineering as much as lighting design. For
example we recently designed and built a 7,000
lb., 25-ft diameter LED chandelier in multiple
operational sections, so that it could ship securely
and seamlessly bolt together onsite.

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May 2018 hospitalitydesign.com

Given your emphasis on customization
and artisan craftsmanship, how do you
deliver a competitive price point?
Price is always relative to quality. Many
Hammerton clients have experience using offshore manufacturers in pursuit of an inexpensive
custom solution, only to be enormously
disappointed by product quality. We start with
a clear understanding of the client's design and
quality expectations, and then manage the cost
equation with smart engineering and technology.
Over 10% of our workforce is made up of
engineers and industrial designers, all of whom
have months of training on the shop floor. So our
design and manufacturing teams share a broad
mastery of materials and fabrication processes.
Collectively, they understand the different
ways fixtures can be built to meet aesthetic and
functional requirements within a given budget.
Technology is also important. We use an inhouse arsenal of 3D software, equipment and CNC
tooling to execute product development quickly
and cost effectively. Rapid prototyping, design
modification and re-engineering components are
just a few ways we manage labor and material
costs while maintaining design integrity.

How does being a U.S. manufacturer
beneﬁt hospitality customers?
One of the industry's biggest pain points is
supplier predictability - in pricing, lead times
and product quality. Being closer to the customer
removes much of this risk. And because all
operations take place under one roof here in
the U.S., we can deliver a superior customer
experience - fast quote turnaround, short lead
times, competitive pricing with no import fees - as
well as a quality product that's delivered exactly to
specification. That's rarely the case with custom
work done overseas.

http://www.hospitalitydesign.com

Hospitality Design - May 2018

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