No two days are the same at Designs for Lighting. Over the years of working here and delivering many lighting designs, I realise that having a plan for the day, week and month is critical! It allows me to focus my attention on specific tasks, making sure that project quality and deadline requirements are met, training is carried out, and resourcing is planned for.

Typically, on arriving at the office, I spend the first part of the day speaking to the lighting designers about their projects and answering any questions they may have. This allows me to effectively plan the rest of my day, and accommodate the designers or client’s needs if necessary.

An essential part of achieving the client’s lighting vision is close communication with the client. I often attend project meetings, where I am managing projects myself, and will encourage the designers to manage their own projects and attend client meetings themselves, but will always assist if required. This increases their own confidence and abilities, and reduces the risk of information being misinterpreted. I really enjoy this mentoring role of my job with the close interaction with the team of designers and the essential 2-way transfer of knowledge and ideas. We’ve all grown together as a close- knit team over many years and there’s a great family feel to the culture here in the office.

My day to day role is to ensure the projects are flowing through the company, ensuring the company’s technical abilities are kept up to date and the training needs and welfare of the designers are met.

It’s become clear to us over time that by focusing on getting a clearer understanding of the project brief at an early concept stage is critical in delivering our client’s vision and needs. I also report back to the Board of Directors on Key Performance Indicators and monitor these against our business plan.

In conclusion, we like to offer clients the security that we have the right processes in place to realise their lighting solution, whichever service they take up. If you’d like to learn more, please email me on andrew@designsforlighting.co.uk

All in all we’re looking forward to an exciting 2018 at DfL and wish our clients and suppliers a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.