Designer Spotlight: ADesignStudio

ADESIGNSTUDIO

ADesignStudio began with LightGarden, a modular fitting that grows across a wall like bougainvillea. This year marks 15 years since I started designing and making my own light fittings.

The studio originally began as a way to experiment with LED illumination and explore lighting as both a technical discipline and an expressive design medium. My background is in industrial design, and my early experience across commercial, architectural and custom lighting shaped the way I approach the work today.

From the beginning, I wanted to create lighting that felt considered from every angle, not only in its external form, but also in the way it performs, is manufactured, interacts with material and ultimately transforms a space.

Early on, I began experimenting with different glass-blowing techniques alongside Ben Edols (world-renowned Australian contemporary glass artist), exploring how texture, density and surface treatment affected the way light was captured and diffused. Crackled glass became particularly interesting because it transformed a once-familiar material language into something more atmospheric and contemporary through LED illumination. The LEDs allowed the glass to glow softly while projecting organic shadows and movement into the surrounding space.

Organic forms also help soften the technical nature of lighting. They introduce familiarity, warmth and emotion, often referencing patterns found in nature, growth, water or landscape.

At ADesignStudio, we use highly resolved lighting technology and detailed prototyping to control performance, but I also like allowing the material itself to retain character. Often, it is those subtle imperfections that give a piece depth and presence.

Every project begins with a question. Sometimes that question is functional: what does this light need to do? Other times it is atmospheric: how should the space feel?

From there, I begin exploring form, materiality, light quality, scale, application and technical performance. The early stages are often very fluid, involving sketches, material testing, prototypes and discussions within the studio.

Because lighting is both object and effect, I am never only designing the fitting itself, I am also designing the behaviour of the light once it enters the space. A form may look beautiful, but if the quality of light is unresolved, the design is incomplete.

Refinement becomes a major part of the process. We work through proportion, detailing, illumination, assembly, finishes, manufacturing methods and installation requirements. Often the final outcome is the result of many small decisions that may appear invisible but are essential to making the piece feel effortless.

Lighting is deeply technical, but the way people experience it is emotional.

The technical side is essential, optics, engineering, heat management, dimming, control systems and performance all need to be carefully resolved. But the reason people respond to light is rarely technical. It is about atmosphere, comfort, intimacy and perception.

For me, the more poetic side of lighting is about the way light can shape how we feel within a space. It can create calm, drama, softness or focus. It can reveal texture, shift the mood of a room or create a quiet moment of pause.

I am interested in finding the balance where the technical aspects become almost invisible, allowing the experience of the light itself to come forward naturally.

I work closely with architects, interior designers, lighting designers, engineers, makers, suppliers and clients, and each collaboration brings a different perspective to the process. Often a project will ask something very specific of a fitting, a certain atmosphere, scale, material response or installation condition and those constraints can push the design in unexpected and rewarding directions.

Collaboration also keeps the work evolving. Some of the studio’s most interesting outcomes have come from conversations where a brief, a site or another designer’s perspective challenged us to think differently.

Receiving the 2025 Casambi Product of the Year award for Choir was incredibly meaningful because the project represents many years of thinking about what portable lighting could become.

Portable lighting has traditionally been viewed as decorative and flexible, but not always deeply integrated into broader lighting systems. Choir challenged that idea by combining portability with refined design and Casambi Bluetooth control, allowing it to operate with the level of sophistication expected in architectural, hospitality and commercial environments.

At the moment, I am continuing to explore the relationship between craft, technology and atmosphere. That includes new applications for hand-blown glass, modular systems, portable lighting, connected control and custom project-based work.