16 Jan Light Up Your Year With CoeLux® and 5 Top Events at Dallas Market!
2018 has been a jolt right out of the starting gate! Starting off the year we’ve got a lot of irons in the fire. To keep up with our studio’s growth, we welcome our new student intern, Stephanie Munoz. While Stephanie’s working on improving your experience with our Pinterest boards, I’ll be focusing on implementing our studio’s 2018 goals and ongoing marketing & sales training with Cathy Kegley of Luxury Design Marketing. (You’ll be hearing much more about Cathy and other great masterminds from the BOLD Summit I attended last fall blog posts throughout 2018.)
And of course attending Dallas Winter Market!
If the looming drop in temp from 60 degrees to 20 overnight doesn’t produce predicted icy roads, I’ll be dashing up to the Dallas Total Home & Gift Market Wed through Friday week with dear friend, interior designer Hjardeir Dunn of Hjardeir Dunn Design.
There’s an all star studded line up for Dallas Market this year with panel discussions on Wed, Thur, and Friday. It’s such a great market to meet designers and learn new tips for your business. I know I won’t be able to make them all, but check out the event schedule here so you can be sure not to miss Kelli Ellis, Julia Buckingham, Nancy Price, Michelle Workman and so many, many more!
I’m scheduling appointments with designers on Thursday and Friday to meet up at Peninsula Home Collection Showroom (WTC-10011) where our “Linen & Wood” pillow series is featured on their wonderful home furnishings. Please contact me to make an appointment (cell 512.207.0681).
In addition to seeing our long-time Dallas accounts, Casa di Lino and Peacock Alley, I want to share these FIVE exciting events with you!
The Pillow Goddess’ “Top Five Must-See Dallas Market Events” (Okay, maybe it’s a few more than five, but there’s so many!)
#1 Debut of CoeLux® Artificial Sunlight Systems.
Debuting for the very first time in the USA, CoeLux® will be showcasing their incredible sunlight lighting system at their NEW CoeLux® Design Showroom on Light + Design on Ten (10085-WTC). It’s debut is during Dallas International Lighting Show “Lightovation” January 17th – 21st in the World Trade Center, but will be open daily for design professionals and clients.
This is a “see-it-to-believe-it” lighting system!
“CoeLux® NEW showroom is in the only permanent trade venue in the world (Dallas) where its unique and technologically groundbreaking products will be displayed.”
Laura Van Zeyl, Vice President of Lighting Technology & Development and Marketing at Dallas Market Center, is very excited about it:
“Their product is truly mind-blowing because there’s nothing else like it! CoeLux® actually created the same chemical blend as in the Earth’s atmosphere in the diffuser, which is why it looks so real. It was $30,000 when it was first introduced and now they have a smaller version that’s only $6,000, which is available for more practical applications. So it was the perfect time to bring it to Dallas.”
I had an opportunity to speak briefly with Mr. Andrew Ard, of Koa Technology Group, which represents CoeLux® in North America, to catch a little of the back story.
PG: Mr. Ard, why did CoeLux® chose Dallas to open it’s first USA Design Showroom?
AA: CoeLux is an Italian brand that has never been available in the USA. We’re the first showroom in the U.S. and responsible for 100% commitment to Coelux. We are working to help them enlarge the brand in the U.S – Chicago, New York – and we convinced them to choose Dallas Market as their National Showroom for it’s reputation.
PG: I can understand why, with Dallas International Lighting Show “Lightovation” being the hub of all things lighting. You must be very excited. What is so unique about CoeLux® Lighting System?
AA: No one in the U.S has ever seen anything like it! A man came from India to get the franchise and was driven by a rep from Plano to the showroom, but the rep told me: ‘Oh, I‘m sorry Mr. Ard, the man still does not believe its not the sun!’ CoeLux® artificial windows and skylights reproduce the true effect of light and space.
PG: I guess I’ll have to see it for myself to believe it. But why is it so unique? What’s the technology behind it?
AA: The physics department in Northern Italy (an interdisciplinary team of researchers) has been working on the nano particles studied by the Nobel Prize-winning, American theoretical physicist, Richard Fynman, of The University of California in 1959. Over a million dollars has been spent in patents duplicating the process.
You’re actually seeing the sun scatter the blue from the sky into the atmosphere. CoeLux® is not a light filter like when the LED projector shines through it. Instead, it is the same process of light scattering (that the sun does).
PG: You mean to tell me that the skylights actually reproduce the true effect of the sun?
AA: Yes, the products are a complex optical system using nanotechnology to artificially reproduce the natural light and visual appearance of the sun and sky.
PG: Has the Italian team done studies to prove this and the benefits of using CoeLux® lighting systems in residential and commercial projects?
AA: Yes, the team did a study published 8 months ago studying heart monitors attached to geriatric patients. They put a few of these CoeLux® systems in and explained what they were. The mood (of the patients in the study) improved and heart rates slowed. It even casts shadows as if coming off the sun. They noticed that people would sit back and close their eyes like they were siting in the sun. It eliminates claustrophobia and improves mood just like the sun.
PG: That’s remarkable!! This seems to be a revolutionary design that can have all sorts of applications in the design and lighting industries.
AA: Yes, It fools your brain (into thinking the light is the sun). It’s a “suspension of disbelief” because your mind says this must be real. It breaks the standard IES measurement techniques.
Note to readers: IES stands for the Illuminating Engineering Society, which has defined a file format for describing the distribution of light from a light source.
PG: Tell me about what kind of products will be in the new showroom for designers to shop with their clients?
AA: Eighteen of the new smaller units, from the ST compact series, will be on display. They’re designed to go into a 2 by 2 ceiling system. What’s unique about the new smaller units is the DALI, digital dimming which allows you to turn the sunlight down and duplicate a moonlit sky.
Below, Laura Van Zeyl, VP of Lighting Technology Development & Marketing at Dallas Market Center is interviewed in this video during Euroluce 2017 in Milan.
Hard to top this ground-breaking announcement, but there’s so much to see and do at Dallas Market!
#2 WEDNESDAY, Januay 17th.
2:30 – 3:30 p.m. Traditional Home Designer Vignettes at the new Interior Home + Design Center (IHDC)-1D421.
Lightovation is going on all day. Be sure to check their exciting events HERE. I hope to make the Women in Lighting Event at 5:00 at the Swarovski showroom in (TM 4926) so I can meet more women in the industry.
But if you haven’t yet had a chance to see the NEW Interior Home + Design Center at Dallas Market, then here’s your chance. I went last June to the grand opening and it’s really a fabulous bright and open wing off the World Trade Center. You can read about NYC Robin Baron’s launch of her showroom there last year HERE.
You also do not want to miss seeing the inspiring vignettes by a few of the 23 top designers who created fabulous rooms for the 2017 Dallas Decorators Showhouse last September. The showhouse, brainchild of designer Donna Moss and sponsored by Traditional Home, was a benefit for the Alzheimer’s Association. I was preparing for BOLD Summit and sadly could not attend, so I am VERY excited to see these vignettes. Friend Elle Cole of Elle Cole Interiors will be recreating her courtyard. The vignettes will be on display all during market, but their kick off event is Wednesday at 2:30. Excited to see these and be inspired!
3:30 p.m. cocktail reception follows at the Botanical Mix.
#3 THURSDAY, January 18th.
1 – 3 p.m. Hear Diane Keaton speak!. Who doesn’t love Diane Keaton? Oh how I laughed from those early Woody Allen movie days in the 1970’s watching Bananas and in the 1980’s Annie Hall. Diane Keeton is putting Dallas on the map with her new book! She’ll be speaking at 1:00 about her new book The House That Pinterest Built. Can’t wait to hear what she has to say about design!
#4. THURSDAY January 18th.
3:00 p.m. Broaden Your Brand with these talented and experienced interior designers panel. Nick May (who I look forward to meeting #irl) does a fantastic interior design podcast “Chaise Lounge” so I know this will be a very informative panel. Plus I heard Michelle speak at BOLD Summit! Looking forward to meeting Libby Langdon too, since I seem to miss her every time she’s at Dallas Market.
4:30 p.m. Meet & Greet Book Signing of FACET Collection for French Heritage. Meet interior designer extraordinaire Michelle Workman and see her inspiring designs. You can even practice at this event my 7 Networking Tips from my June blog post about Michelle and her Art-Deco inspired FACET collection on the blog HERE.
#5. FRIDAY, January 19th.
1:00 p.m. Business of Interior Design Panel discussion (IHDC 1D205) Well, it looks like the king of The Chaise Lounge podcast will be moderating several panels this market! Join industry leaders Nancy Price, Kelli Ellis, and Rebecca Robeson as they talk about the design business, interior trends, and more on this celebrity-filled panel moderated by Nick May.
TWO MORE DEBUTS at Dallas Market to catch! I’m sure I’ve missed listing a ton more events, and I’ll be gone by the weekend, but I encourage you to seek out all the events and new product launches you can. There are so many exciting product lines, panels to hear, with so much inspiration and business tips to learn at Dallas Market, I can’t wait! Event link HERE. Congratulations to two very influential interior design friends, Corey Damen Jenkins and Denise McGaha on their new licensing agreement announcements below!
I look forward to seeing y’all Wed through Friday, that is if the ice doesn’t shut us down. Till next week, when we’re back with some 2018 trends, stay warm! XO, PG
UPDATE: Hudson Valley Lighting is hosting a “sneak peek” Industry Preview for Corey’s new licensed collection Wednesday and Thursday from 3-5 PM! The events will be held in showroom #3902 at Dallas Market!
“Please come hang out with me, enjoy a signature cocktail and be among the first to see our new collaboration! You can also enter your name into a raffle to win a chandelier!” – Corey Damen Jenkins
NOTE: This is not a sponsored post. CoeLux® photos are by CoeLux® . Others are from Dallas Market. Opinions are my own.
No Comments