david k warfel
Giving the Simple Gift of Light #3 As I get older, my running routine has become a jogging routine or, sometimes, what I call my slogging routine. A few times a week I get up, pull on running clothes, and stumble out the door. As I start slogging towards the lake, my body sometimes says:... Continue Reading →
The Simple Gift of Light #3 Would you like to wake gently each morning, refreshed and ready for the new day? Light can help you. A few years ago I caught some kind of nasty cough, the kind that gets worse when lying horizontal (so much for sleep), and it just wouldn’t go away. For... Continue Reading →
Giving the Simple Gift of Light #2 Ready to roll up your proverbial (or literal, I suppose) shirtsleeves? This series is all about helping aspiring residential lighting designers, architects, interior designers, and DIY homeowners get better light in their homes. If you want to know why this is important and dig into the theory behind... Continue Reading →
The second post of the Simple Gift of Light series is the first step of relighting your life: fuel up. The first step towards improving your life with the simple gift of light is to start seeing light like our ancestors did: as a mystical, magical, and even sacred gift. This is going to take... Continue Reading →
Introducing a second new series for 2025 focused on practical advice for designers. Today I start a second new series for the year that I hope will make a strong compliment to the first. Last week I started the Simple Gift of Light series as a place to explore several key benefits of light in... Continue Reading →
Introduction to a new series for 2025...and beyond? Light, to me, is the first divine gift of the universe. In the middle of a career centered on light, I have more questions than answers, despite knowing more than ever before. Why, for example, do so many people suffer from light that hurts as much as... Continue Reading →
We recently lost a potential client to a manufacturer who offered “free” lighting design services (so long as you purchased fixtures from them, of course, which have the cost of service buried into the sale price). My first reaction was indignation but, as is often the case, a closer look revealed a much more nuanced... Continue Reading →
In most of our kitchens, we prioritize our dogs or the dust bunnies that inevitably collect on top of cabinets, range hoods, and refrigerators. At least when planning light. We might put more money into our countertops, cabinets, backsplashes, sinks, and appliances than our floor, but we are systematically using the best light in the... Continue Reading →
Coffee, when poured into a mug and consumed, delivers a strongly desired boost of energy through caffeine. The same coffee, when poured onto the laptop, can be ruinous. The question of usefulness or harmfulness, applied to coffee, is answered by the use. The same can be true for light, especially outside. But indulge me a... Continue Reading →
Not all that is new in lighting is much better. One of the newest trends in architectural and residential lighting is tubes of light about 1” in diameter. When I started my career a rather good number of years ago, we called these T8 Fluorescent Tubes, and they were universally loathed for their institutional feel.... Continue Reading →
the language of light 