Here’s the scoop from Lightovation | The Lighting Report
What we learned during the Day 1 of the lighting show.
Greetings from Dallas! After a Designer Preview Day on Tuesday, Lightovation got fully underway here on Wednesday, and while the Uber drivers were all aflurry about a much-hyped snowfall on Thursday, inside Dallas Market Center the industry was more focused on new product.
Here’s a quick round-up from Day 1:
WAC Group (that’s the new name for the company that encompasses WAC Lighting, Schonbek and Modern Forms) is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a big party tonight in its newly renovated showroom that brings all three brands together, connected by an interior staircase. The company is showcasing its tech know-how with the new WAC Home, a smart home system that wirelessly controls downlights, tapes and pixels and is tunable white. One of its coolest features is the ability to adjust each light fixture in a room or home to mimic the path of the sun throughout the day to better align with people’s natural circadian rhythms. It is being sold not just to interior designers and architects, but also to dealers.
Alteck Lighting is a new lighting company making its industry debut. The company is co-owned by Ryan Wu, who serves as chief sourcing officer, and Bob De’Armond, who is CEO. Colleen Visage, formerly of Progress Lighting, is chief operating officer. The company’s inaugural lineup is outdoor product, with fixtures made from various weather-resistant materials and include aluminum, marble and travertine. Wall sconces and flush mounts have three CCTs, pendants have five.
Hubbardton Forge offered one of its largest introductions in years with more than 100 new items. Some of the highlights include the Clouds collection of opaque multi-drop pendants in a tortoiseshell-like white finish; Veneto, an Italian-made design comprised of layers of glass sandwiching a 3-D milky white teardrop shape; and Astra, a big open metal sphere dotted with pieces of art glass that resemble crumpled paper anchored by a forged medallion in each center.
Hudson Valley Lighting Group put its Troy and Mitzi brands front and center at this market with a new nature-inspired collection from AD100 designer Mandy Cheng in Mitzi and a new line from Troy in collaboration with sculptor and woodworker Chandler McLellan.
Crystorama leaned into art glass at this show with several new pieces infused with color, including Esme (a sphere made up of colorful blooms) and Ollie (cascading pendants featuring textured glass panels in pink and ice blue, among other colors). Crystorama also introduced mirrors, a new category, using its popular Broche design.
ASID provided its interior design 2025 trend outlook for lighting with a great discussion among panelists Jeff Dross, Heather Fujikawa and Kirsten Recce, moderated by S. Dawn Haynie. Its four main themes were designing for joy, neuro-inclusive design, sustainability and lighting innovation. Some of the trends they collectively noted include brushed and mixed metals, mixed mediums, skirting, tapes, landscape prints, textural prints, scalloped and ribbed details, and the overall softening of every design aesthetic, from contemporary to traditional forms.
Stay tuned to our website, our newsletters and our Instagram posts for more information about that panel discussion, additional product introductions, people pics from market and our HAT tags for best products seen at market.
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