Global Classrooms of Chicago Visits Lightology for Hands-On Education

On Wednesday, a lively and engaged crew of high school students from Global Classrooms of Chicago stopped by our showroom for a hands-on learning experience. Students from Kenny Bae’s Urban Planning class visited Lightology to learn about lighting and electricity.

It was a different crowd than our usual student tours, typically given to college-aged students of design. We welcomed the younger group with open arms and were thrilled to find them so captivated by the tour, led by Lightology sales consultant and lighting expert, Jeremy Baker.

Favoring hands-on experience over textbook learning, Global Classrooms of Chicago engages students from various Chicago public schools in a supplementary, industry-driven education.

They are working on a project to re-light a room with more energy-efficient, less expensive fixtures. They stopped by today to get a feel for creative, more efficient & economic ways of doing so. At the end of their project they will submit a business proposal, and the best plan will be used to re-light one room of their school.

About Global Classrooms

Established in 2001, Global Classrooms has grown into an international program working in 24 cities around the world. Sponsored by the United Nations Association of the USA (USA-UN), the program’s purpose is teaching students in underserved communities to be global citizens by bridging “the gap in the Model UN community between experienced programs and traditionally underserved public schools.” (USNA.org)

At the core of the Global Classrooms’ curriculum is the Model UN Conference, where students roleplay as international delegates and debate a variety of issues that challenge today’s global community.

Chicago’s Model UN Summit is TODAY!   (April 26, 2013)

GC Chicago – Lightology Student Tour – Photo Gallery

To learn more about Global Classrooms and Global Classrooms of Chicago, visit their website.

Inside Lightology’s Showroom with Google Streetview

Come INSIDE the Lightology Showroom! With Google Streetview, anyone can now visit Lightology’s incredible showroom, day or night, from anywhere in the world.

Google Streetview now offers a complete tour of Lightology’s first two floors, allowing visitors to peruse a vast array of stunning, unique contemporary lighting fixtures from the hottest US and European designers.

Far more than a virtual window shopping experience, the tour offers opportunities to explore hidden niches, find educational lighting exhibits and view original “Light-art” displays.

Highlights

First Floor highlights include a new PureEdge recessed lighting wall that shows you how to “let the drywall be your canvas”, as well as a breathtaking 360⁰ view of the Atrium.

Climb the Atrium staircase to reach the Second Floor, stroll the catwalks, and venture into the Morpheus Room. Find the back stairwells leading to the Second and Third floors for a journey through the “History of Light.”

Wherever you are in the showroom, don’t forget to look up, left, right, and all around. Click on the arrows to progress through the tour, click on any spot on the floor to go there instantly, and click-and-drag your mouse to rotate your view in any direction—to the left, right, up or down.

Have fun!

About

This tour was made possible by the talented, Google Trusted Photographer, Joni Kat Anderson.

Lights, Camera, Lightology!

Interior Designer Adele Young visited the Lightology Showroom Monday morning with a film crew from Octane Rich Media. The mission? To show designers and homeowners what a difference great lighting makes.

Octane Rich Media Crew (left) – Adele Between Takes in the Morpheus Room (right)

Young knows that when it comes to design, lighting not only sets the tone but also makes or breaks the atmosphere. Beautiful lighting is a design element unto itself.

Lights. Camera. Coffee. Action!

What Makes Great Lighting?

Great lighting involves more than stylish fixtures that complement decor and tie a room together.

It’s important to understand the various properties of light and how they interact within any given setting. Equal parts art and science, designing with light can take a lifetime to master.

Fortunately, anybody can learn some basic lighting principles that dramatically impact the look and feel of any space.  Some of these include:

– Layers of light
– Color temperature (“shades” of white light)
– Color rendering (quality of a light source), measured as CRI

Color Temperature Stairway – Lightology

Light Education

With Lightology’s array of educational, interactive exhibits and captivating Light-Art displays, we can’t think of a better place for Adele to demonstrate the basic principles of good lighting design.

(Just last week, a “Design with Light” class from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago visited the showroom for an educational tour.)

We look forward to seeing the finished results, and we’ll post an update when the video is available.

Adele Young is an interior designer and the owner of Chicago design firm VDL Interiors. She is also an Ambassador for #IntDesignChat on Twitter.

Chicago-based Octane Rich Media is a creative agency that produces original content for HD video, web design, and mobile apps.

Visit our Facebook page to see more photos from the shoot.

Museum of Light

Last Week, a group of 20 design students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) visited the Lightology Showroom for a Lighting Education Tour. Lighting Designer Diane Fairchild and Architect Richard Kasemsarn brought their “Design with Light” class to Lightology for an immersive educational experience.

Students Tour Lightology – View from the Catwalk

The one hour student tour explored fundamental lighting principles, the properties of light, lighting design techniques, and the evolution of electric lighting technology. This design class is one of many to have taken the tour, which evolved over the years as increasing numbers of student groups requested access to Lightology’s space.

Students Tour Color Temperature Stairway (left) – History of Light Stairwell Bottom Landing (right)

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the International Academy of Design & Technology, and Harrington School of Design are but a few of the prestigious design schools that often ask for student tours at Lightology.

Tour leader Andrew Goldman notes, “We’ve heard a lot of feedback that these student groups leave Lightology with a deeper appreciation and understanding of things they’ve been learning about in class. Our exhibits and displays allow them to see and touch the things they learn in books.”

Ascending the History of Light Stairwell

More than a Showroom

Lightology founder and owner Greg Kay sees the tours as a sign that he must be doing something right. The award-winning lighting designer and Master Electrician opened Lightology in 2001 with a mission to offer the finest modern and contemporary lighting in the world. At the same time, he wanted to create a world-class educational center for lighting design.

“For me, Lightology has always been about more than just selling light fixtures—it’s more than a place to browse and shop,” says Kay.

Color Temperature Stairway

“When I first had the idea to open Lightology, I knew I wanted people to be able to explore the showroom as they would The Museum of Science and Industry, for example.”

Indeed, it’s no stretch to think of Lightology as Chicago’s Unofficial Museum of Light. The modern, glass-enclosed structure boasts 3 stories of stunning lighting displays and looks more like an art gallery than a lighting store. A variety of eye-catching and unexpected Light Art displays add to the ambience.

Visitors may explore a host of permanent, educational and interactive exhibits on the properties of light and color, the history of electric lighting, and the emergence of LEDs as the future of lighting. A breathtaking exhibit in the Morpheus Room demonstrates the impact of light and lighting systems on architecture, design, and human emotion.

In addition to educational tours for design and architecture students, Lightology’s award-winning showroom also hosts a variety of lighting seminars, industry training sessions, and other events. Complementing these educational experiences is a multitude of cultural events, parties, and photo shoots that take place throughout the year. (Even weddings!)

“Lightology is an experience,” affirms Kay. “It’s an adventure, a resource for lighting education, and really an opportunity to expand people’s notions about light, art, and the world around them.”

For more information, contact Fred Kern at fkern@lightology.com or call 773-770-1143.

Love is Patient, Kind and Lightology

The insanely warm (but extremely welcome!) summer-like temperatures in Chicago have officially given us reason to share our unbridled excitement for beach vacations, flowy skirts and, of course, romantic summer weddings.

And with our first ‘Save the Date’ invitation received, we thought it appropriate to share engagement and wedding photos that were taken at our downtown lighting showroom throughout the past year.

Courtesy of Redwall Photo

When the phone calls from photographers and happy couples first started rolling in, our staff was surprised to hear people wanted to use our showroom as the backdrop for their engagement or wedding photos.

But now that we’ve seen the result, we understand why! Our three-story (plus rooftop) showroom is full of crevices and crannies that make for uniquely ‘illuminating’ photographs.

Our showroom and rooftop garden are always available for photography during normal business hours, so lovebirds and aspiring photographers alike, feel free to stop by!

But please make sure and share the photos with us – we’ll need them to cheer us up we get snow in May. (Chicago, you know it will happen.)

Browse through the gallery below to see more engagement/wedding photos taken at the Lightology showroom!

Interior Designer Chat Tweet Up @lightology

This Tuesday, people from all over the country came to the Lightology showroom to participate in our first-ever Tweet Up with our co-hosts @IntDesignerChat! At the beginning of the night, guests at the showroom and around the country participated in the weekly twitter chat, #IntDesignerChat, where the subject of the night was lighting. (Read the transcript)

Afterwards, the party continued for guests at the showroom, enjoying food, drinks and social media tips for their business! If you are a trade professional, make sure to register for our trade benefits program to get exclusive discounts on products and invitations to upcoming Lightology events! Visit our facebook page to see all the photos from the Tweet Up!

Lightology earns Showroom of the Year Award

Recently,  Lightology attended the Dallas Market Center International Lighting trade show where Residential Lighting Magazine hosted its first-ever Showroom of the Year awards!

Lightology was one of ten nominees, and took home the Outstanding Merchandising Display award. We are thrilled to display this award and wanted to share some photos of the displays that earned us such fantastic recognition. If you are ever in the Chicago area, please come by to see it for yourself!

View the Lightology Showroom online virtual tour from anywhere, at any time.

The first floor is just the beginning!

Great views of our chandeliers from the second and third floor catwalk!

Our Swarovski and Schonbek Crystal displays are some of our most popular.

Our rooftop garden is a great place to find the perfect outdoor lighting.

Our storefront at night…

… and during the day!

Light & Love: A Perfect Pair.

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You light up my life.

I’ll leave the light on for you.

Come on baby, light my fire.

If you ask us, sounds like light and love are the perfect pair. So it makes sense why so many couples are coming to Lightology to capture the true essence of their love … in their engagement photos!

Misha Media Photography took advantage of EVERY inch of our showroom and rooftop deck. Don’t they look so cool sitting in the Morpheus Room (located on the second floor of our showroom) with the Andy Warhol behind them?!

Ashley Witmer Photography, Tunwa Yee of Edward Fox Photography and Photographer Chris Murphy captured the breathtaking skyline and gorgeous landscaping on our rooftop garden. And the couples don’t look half bad either!

Thanks so much to the photographers and couples Anna and Ron, Sarah and Mark, Nikki and Bhavesh, and Michelle and Mike! We wish you all a very bright future!

You can see more photos of these couples under fan photos on our facebook page.