david k warfel
The Simple Gift of Light #7 The key benefits of light- gentle mornings, energetic days, relaxing evenings, and restful nights- come only when we consume the right light at the right time. But what makes some lighting good and other lighting bad? There are seemingly endless technical considerations that quickly get overwhelming and, honestly, few... Continue Reading →
The Simple Gift of Light #6 Light is an incredible gift, a powerful tool and beautiful natural phenomenon we can both use and enjoy. As I lighting design professional, I spend most of my working hours figuring out how to help people enjoy the benefits of light but seldom invest much energy (no pun intended)... 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 →
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 →
I do not like messy things. You might not believe me based on the usual state of my desktop, but disorganization and messes slowly sap my strength. A freshly organized and cleaned desk invigorates. My team never sees my desk, as we are a distributed workforce (also known as work-from-home or remote workers), but they... Continue Reading →
Periodically my obsession with Red Velvet cake (or Waldorf Astoria Cake, as it is sometimes known) leaves the safety of my personal life and comes across the border into my work. A few years ago, struggling to explain the value of layers of light in ways that would make it easy remember, I realized that... Continue Reading →
What makes a pretty good house? My first exposure to the Taunton Press was as an avid reader of Sarah Susanka's The Not So Big House books. Taunton is also responsible for Fine Homebuilding (to which I subscribe and for whom I have written) and Fine Woodworking, among others. Now Taunton has published a new... 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 →
My THINK LIGHT series is my outlet for being a lighting geek. Perhaps I should rephrase that - this is my outlet for being a lighting pseudo-geek. I do love the science, geometry, biology, psychology, and technology of light, but I am no scientist, biologist, psychologist, or technologist. There is a limit to how geeky... Continue Reading →
the language of light 