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THE ART OF DESIGN issue 15
Lighting …
design in a box or in a day?
The fast, new ways to design beautiful interiors with light….yourself !
or with a friendly designer?
We caught up with international lighting designer Phil Gardner in
the chocolate box beauty of South Shropshire, where he now lives
(a long way from London or even Saudi Arabia where he has many
loyal clients) because after 20 years of professional design he is
sure the World wants to access skills and experience in new ways.
If you always realized the difference between a nice interior
design and World class interior was the light, then you, like most
people considered employing a lighting designer…for a brief
moment, for perhaps a google search and then reality set in, or
the project moved so quickly. But the problem is that “niggling”
doubt and that questions always keep coming back to the
lighting decisions, which you know have to be “just right”.
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“It took me years to discover the simple thread all my
customers had in common” says Phil, “they want a home
they can be proud of”, and they know light has an important
role. It sounds simple when you say it, but all clients have
a different set of circumstances, and yet the young couple
with two young kids a semi and do all the work themselves,
to the retired businessman in his estate want the same thing.
So why should lighting design always be in the same size
package?
Firstly, there is the new “Lighting design in a Box” … the step
by step system for creating your own beautiful interiors with
light. This suits you ideally if you, are self build, self renovating
making all or lots of the decisions your self and happy to commit
your time. It maybe you do things over time, room by room,
maybe you have an interest in adding lighting to your skills for
a career…
Secondly, there is “Design in a Day”. Visit Phil & Michelle in their
300 year old farmhouse in South Shropshire, be inspired by the
beauty and lack of phone/ e-mails as you give your dedicated
time to the project and so does the design team around you . At
the end of 1 passionate day leave with all the plans, drawings and
specification of all the lights…fantastic for the busy people who want
to be consulted on every decision as attention to detail is vital but
you are busy and having this done and perfected in a day moves the
project on perfectly.
Thirdly of course, “Design with our team”, the full project is handled
by designers and project managers and they travel to you or site
each time as the full concept to detailed design stages are done
over about 5 weeks. When there are to many decisions and details
for other services or the size of the work to be handled in any
other way.
Phil has teams developing across the UK (and Middle East) so
whilst there may not be a team directly on your county (yet), we
can always help…or perhaps you would like to train as a lighting
designer with us in a regional business? (ask please).
Phil Gardner and the team at Greyblue Lighting Design can
be found at :
www.greyblue.co.uk
T: 0845 900 5790 i
[email protected]
> www.theartofdesignmagazine.com
Issue 15 - 2015