david k warfel
Light became an escape from burnout (or worse) as I approached mid-life, but getting out the door of toxic work environments was only the beginning. I wandered in the proverbial desert for a few years, bouncing from project to project, learning a few hard lessons along the way, and reinvigorating my love for and understanding of architectural... Continue Reading →
My journey towards the light was not always easy or straight, and a chaotic turning point grew increasingly likely as I pushed towards my fortieth birthday. I spent the entirety of my 30’s (and change) split between the worlds of university teaching and freelance designing, periodically shifting the balance from one to the other as... Continue Reading →
Light became a tool when I landed my first job in architectural lighting following graduate school, but my journey did not continue on a tidy linear path. I learned quite a bit from my employers and coworkers and enjoyed the excitement of working on high-profile projects in downtown Chicago and beyond. Unfortunately, I was also young and... Continue Reading →
Of all the moments of discovery, connection, and understanding provided at LightFair this year, none stirred my emotions or challenged my thinking as deeply as the fifty minutes allotted to the Light + Justice conference session. Led by Edward Bartholomew, Mark Loeffler, and Lya S. Osborn, the presentation shook up my thinking and clarified my focus.... Continue Reading →
It does not take long for someone like me to second-guess a blog series. About two posts, apparently. This, my third post in an auto-biographical series exploring my personal and professional journey in light, comes with the same doubt as each of the previous. Why would anyone want to read about my life? But perhaps... Continue Reading →
Introducing three new blog series has gone on so long that I feel the year will be over before I get to write much helpful content. We'll see if I have the patience to stick this out, or if I end up reverting to more practical discussions.... As I push within shouting distance of fifty... Continue Reading →
Lighting designers are trained from birth...okay, that's an exaggeration and a cliche, so this blog post is not off to the best start. Where was I? Ah yes, lighting designers are trained to know the difference between good lighting design and bad lighting design. This morning I pondered the possibility that this embedded understanding of... Continue Reading →
Last week I delivered a webinar with the same title as this blog post and it was one of the hardest presentations I have done in quite some time. Change does not always come easy for me, but it is a vital part of the creative process. When I pitched the webinar idea to the... Continue Reading →
https://videopress.com/v/67XaWGxf?preloadContent=metadata If you are one of my faithful readers that was sad in 2020 because I wrote only half my normal quantity of posts, I owe you an apology and an explanation. Of course, 2020 is a year that will go down in history as the year of "no apology needed." I'm sorry I didn't... Continue Reading →
Note: I began this post in a different world, a pre-coronavirus world. Now, as many more of us are sheltering in place, light at home is more critical than ever. Now, as many of us face illness, the benefits of light for wellness are more important than ever. We're still on a mission to help.... Continue Reading →
the language of light 