Do you give a damn?

This one goes out to all the LDs

It’s not an easy question. At first, I think any of us might shoot back - of course I do! But the world seeks to beat us down. There’s enough challenge in doing good design work every day. It takes experience, training and courage to be a good lighting designer.

But it’s hard to give a damn everyday in the face of never ending value engineering ever shrinking project timelines and all of the forces that align to derail good design.

In other words, it’s easy to stop giving a damn.

The lighting design firms who call me with the most problems are the ones I cherish the most. Why? Because i know they give a damn. They care that.... ...the color doesn’t match between the two downlights in the hallway ...there’s a noticeable dip in output as the cove light dims. ...the ends of the linear slots are a little dark ...that the lenses shrank a bit and there’s a light leak.

These kinds of “pain in the ass” problems tell me that they care about how the design looks.

That’s something we should cherish, not belittle.

So keep giving a damn.

We’ll be there to support you.