Lighting design plays an enormous role in supporting mood, feelings, perceptions and even human connection and romance. In this time when we’re suffering the side effects caused by extreme deprivation of social interaction and human connection we thought it would be a beautiful thing to talk about how lighting can be designed to soothe our minds, uplift our spirits and help us find clarity, depth and meaning in our day, in our surroundings, in ourselves. To help us visualize and understand both the science and the poetry of lighting design we talked to two experts at the top of the lighting game: Drew Stuart, Field Director and Partner at multi-disciplinary architecture and design studio, INC, and Cecilia Ramos, Senior Director - Architectural Market for Lutron Electronics. This conversation is brought to you by Lutron, and was recorded in October of 2020 as part of CLOSEUP, a live & virtual two-day design showcase event presented by WantedDesign Manhattan and ICFF.

Dr. Natalie Nixon grew up in Philadelphia playing double dutch and hopscotch on the street. Listening to jazz with her dad and exploring art with her mother taught her the value of improvisation and emotional resonance. Flexing her academic excellence while also being subjected to racial bigotry and red lining helped to hone her ability to see systems and span boundaries. Her experiences are vast and varied, from running a hat business in New York city to earning her PhD in Design Management in London. Today she's the president of Figure 8 Thinking, a Creative Strategy & Design Research consultancy that helps leaders apply creativity & foresight to achieve transformative business results, and the author of The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation, and Intuition at Work.

Robyn Kanner’s personal story is twisty and beautifully American. Largely self-taught, She fought hard to find her voice, and has battled bullies, addiction and self-doubt on her path to purpose. She, alongside Carahna Magwood, led a design team that effectively imbued the Biden Harris ticket with an uplifting, hopefulness that stressed reliability, inclusive values and unification. From the hot pink Biden & Lady Gaga promos, to unifying red-blue gradients. Robyn’s is a story of acceptance, healing, hard work, creativity and community - and feels as bright and hopeful as a victory gradient.

Airbnb Co-Founder & CEO, Brian Chesky, grew up playing hockey and asking Santa for poorly designed toys so he could redesign them. A self-described “peculiar” kid obsessed with art, no one pegged him as a future CEO. He studied industrial design at RISD where he also met his future business partner. After soaring global success, Airbnb, having suffered dramatic losses due to coronavirus, is getting back to its creative values and making meaningful contributions in the modern crisis of connection.

2020 has been a rollercoaster, but we’re thankful that in such a turbulent year we were still able to have so many inspiring voices on the show. As we approach the end of the year, we wanted to share some of our favorite moments, covering themes of self-discovery, believing in and staying true to one’s creative self; the importance of building a design community with true diversity; and remembering that design and creativity are key to solving a problem, no matter how complex or pervasive.

In this Clever Extra we teamed up with Carl Hansen & Son to unpack society's long-term love for Danish Design. Known for exceptional craftsmanship and an alluringly clean, organic aesthetic, many of the now-iconic pieces of the Danish Modern era were initially too avant-garde for Danes, and found their foothold in the US market. Carl Hansen & Son’s director, Erik Hansen, and Principal of Commune, Roman Alonso, break down the enduring appeal of Danish Design and its mark on our global design consciousness.

Drawing from rich traditions of the 60s and 70s of the last century, the contemporary Polish design and illustration shows the accuracy of observation, a sense of humor, irony, clarity and, at the same time, simplicity of the form. Yet, seen through the eyes of Polish women, it not only provides us with the moment of reflection, or admiration of the esthetics, but sometimes even though seemingly trivial, simple topics, touches upon important issues, such as the position of the women in the world. For centuries women were in a subordinate position in terms of their rights, voice, independence, their social and familial status. Learn more about this exhibition!

This is the story of how design is making the world a better place, one street at a time, in the most impoverished gang ravaged neighborhoods in El Salvador. Designer Roberto Juárez, co-founder of Lero Studio in San Salvador, discusses how he is helping 10- to 15-year-old at-risk children to embrace design rather than gang membership.

Malene Barnett is an artist, activist, speaker and legacy maker working in one-of-a-kind ceramic sculptures and bespoke textiles. Raised in Norwalk, Connecticut, she’s an authority on the cultural traditions and practices of art in the African diaspora and how it translates into the modern black experience. She founded the Black Artists + Designers Guild, and is on a mission to use art as a tool to expand the conversation around marginalization in the arts and create greater opportunities for inclusion.

Born and raised in Chicago IL, Kara Mann was steeped in an environment of creativity, elegance, and resourcefulness. An entrepreneur at heart, Kara would sell CDs to fund projects and lie about her age to work restaurant shifts. Now she runs her own studio and has racked up clients like Virgil Abloh, Goop and several luxury hotels. She’s just launched a collection with CB2 and a line of home essentials called Kept. The Wall Street Journal aptly calls her a “spark plug in the world of design.”