Ten experienced lighting designers walk into a conference. Can they agree on what they actually do for a living?

"What do you do?" For lighting designers, it's a deceptively hard question to answer well. At the IALD Enlighten Americas 2025 conference in Tucson, hosts Avraham Mor (Morlights) and Lisa Reed (Reed Burkett Lighting Design) posed three pointed questions to ten industry veterans —

Chip Israel (Lighting Design Alliance, A Salas O'Brien Company)
Aram Ebben (EXP)
Francesca Bastianini (Sighte Studio)
Ron Kurtz (Dark Light Design)
Randy Burkett (RBLD)
Giulio Pedota (Schuler Shook)
Steven Rosen (Available Light)
Laura Arroyo (FLOU Lighting Design)
Gonzalo Saez (SV Lighting Design)
Nancy Clanton (Clanton & Associates)

The conversation cuts to the core of professional identity, the real distinction from electrical contractors, and whether a unified global vocabulary for the profession is even achievable. Then ChatGPT weighs in — sort of.

In This Episode:

(00:00) Welcome and IALD Enlighten Americas 2025 conference recap
(06:47) How do you describe lighting design to a non-technical audience?
(10:48) Lighting designer vs. electrical contractor: where expertise diverges
(14:31) Can the profession agree on a shared vocabulary?
(20:44) ChatGPT synthesizes responses from eight designers
(26:30) Debating the definition — and who it actually needs to reach
Would you be interested in sponsoring our podcast? Reach out to us.
Share your thoughts, comments, like and subscribe to hear all of our informative upcoming episodes!

About the show:

Lighting Matters is hosted by Lisa Reed and Avi Mor. In each episode, we’ll dig deep into the meticulous process of creating lighting design for architecture, showcasing industry leaders who balance artistic creativity with technical precision, and listen as they share their successes and challenges in architectural lighting design.

Resources:
IALD: https://iald.org/Conferences/EA25
Lighting Matters Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lighting-matters-podcast/
Lighting Matters Podcast YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbLkEKnB8XgSXoeDY0T8t3w

Lisa Reed https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-j-reed-b198154/

Reed Burkett Lighting Design http://www.rbldi.com

Avraham Mor https://www.linkedin.com/in/avrahammor/

Morlights https://www.morlights.com/