Webinar: A Second Language of Light

IES Educational Webinar Series
  • April 22, 2021
    11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Stop pushing lighting; start sharing light.
“We don’t need anything fancy; we just need regular lighting.”
We are all in sales of some kind. Designers sell ideas and concepts that require the sale of light fixtures. Engineers lay out precise solutions that require the purchase of product and the labor of installation. Manufacturers create lighting products that must sell to keep the doors open and food on the table. Client and customer comments like the one above may strike fear in your heart, and it should. Lighting is not often an easy sell.

Someone else does it faster, cheaper, or better so hurry up, lower your prices or fees, and improve your game. The end user doesn’t want what we have and would rather not pay for it. Nobody cares about our calculations but us and lawyers, the client does not know TM-30 from R2-D2, and the only thing selling like hotcakes are the glare bombs shaped like them.

Now for the good news: you are the keeper of a sacred ancient magic that has the power to transform lives. Life depends on this magical force. Light is a fundamental element of our existence, but we need to learn a second language of light if we are to share this amazing gift with the world.

Join David K. Warfel for a romp through the lighting industry where no one is safe from over-simplification and pithy remarks but where everyone can laugh a little and see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
And it is brighter than ever.

Webinar participants are eligible for one (1) IES Continuing Education Unit (CEU).

PRESENTER: David K. Warfel
David K. WarfelDavid K. Warfel is an overly sensitive, marginally materialistic, pseudo-tree-hugging Midwestern farm boy turned lighting designer. His hyper-sensitivity means he dims everything including his dashboard, and his marginal materialism means he loves high quality light fixtures, elegant controls, and French cuffs. He calms his enviro-consciousness by using energy-saving lighting solutions and wearing hiking shoes to work, and is always ready to roll up his literal shirt sleeves to solve client problems with baling wire and duct tape (although now he prefers gaffers tape). He uses the title “Convergence Designer” since he cannot decide what he wants to be if he ever grows up (unlikely at this point), and practices at the overlap of architectural and performance lighting. He’s as surprised as you are by the list of credits to his name that range from New York’s Carnegie Hall to the Las Vegas’ Luxor and MGM Grand casinos, from Chicago’s Hyde Park Arts Center and Museum of Science and Industry to residential and hospitality projects in Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Nevada, Oregon, California, and Arizona. He has worked with award-winning firms Schuler Shook and CharterSills, and weathered the recession safely cloistered as the head of lighting design at the University of Illinois. David’s work has been featured in Lighting & Sound America, Lighting Australia, Live Design, and Theatrical Design & Technology, but he is usually reading Inspector Gamache novels or other similar educational materials.