Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2016 - sfw_risd_richardbarnes_1-1024x576

For creative people, inspiration can be found almost anywhere.

At the Rhode Island School of Design all students are required to look at nature, not just a passing glance but to REALLY LOOK, to understand what is at work on a structural level. This is encouraged in a magical place now called the Edna Lawrence Nature Lab.  Edna Lawrence founded the Nature lab in 1937, and it has served as inspiration for many, many generations of art and design students at RISD.

Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2016 - DSC04766-229x300
In discussions I had with fellow RISD alumnus and lighting designer Lindsey Adelman while mocking-up an enormous custom chandelier in a Greenwich Village home project, her profound connection to the innate understanding of structure, learned in the Nature Lab, became very clear to me.

Lindsey’s lighting designs are a wonderful combination of fine engineering and hand-craftsmanship, culminating in fixtures that have the essential structural characteristics found in nature.

But there’s more….

Lindsey has a remarkably easy and warm personality that allows for (and likely creates) goodness in her sphere. She has developed a remarkable studio culture in the last 10 years where everyone is a participant and is invested in the process and the result. This inherent dignity of creation is part of who she is, and what she brings into our world. There are many who have and will try to make copies of her inspired work, but the spirit of the makers will always be missing.

I am thrilled for Lindsey’s success, and amazed at how she maintains her own creative center while inspiring those around her, navigating through  her world with dozens of employees/collaborators, and a family life with grace.  Recently I was thrilled to help her celebrate her first ten years in business at an inspired party held at the Jane Hotel Ballroom.

This FANTASTIC video was part of the evening’s celebration! (I highly recommend you watch it full screen)

Some Relationships are Better Than Others from Lindsey Adelman Studio on Vimeo.

 Director: Lindsey Adelman

Director of Photography: Lauren Coleman

Producer: Mitsu Hagiwara

Sora Photography Phantom Team: Tomoya Hara, Kazushige Sunahara, Satoshi Motoda, Sasha Burkett

Edited by: Jonathan Turner

Music by: Headlock