16 - Light Voices #3 – Quincy Drane

00:00:03: Johanna Stückler: Welcome to Licht hören, a podcast about light, lighting and the people behind it. Here we explore this fascinating field from education and daily practice to how we imagine and shape its future. And today we have the lighting designer at Hardtraf Lighting Studios, Quincy Drane with us. In one sentence, who are you for everybody who doesn't know you? And what do you do with light?

00:00:32: Quincy Drane: Great question. My name is Quincy and I am an architectural lighting designer, but a curious lifelong learner and I'm currently living in New York City. What I like to do with light is create spaces that feel welcoming and really bring people together.

00:00:51: Johanna Stückler: Beautiful. So as a lighting designer, what do you do in your daily life? Like your day as a lighting designer? What does it look like? What do we have to imagine what you do?

00:01:03: Quincy Drane: Great. What I do as an architectural lighting designer varies from day to day, but largely is working with other designers. So architectural designers, electrical engineers, even just our clients themselves, people who are wanting our lighting design services, and working together to then figure out how we can design the light that's within the space or even outside, like so for landscape or parks or sculptures. And that can involve picking out different light fixtures and then understanding where in the space the light should be and what kind of light it should be.

00:01:41: Johanna Stückler: How do you come to that job? I mean, like, it doesn't fall from the sky. What was your path? How did you end up there?

00:01:50: Quincy Drane: Maybe traditional, kind of non-traditional. I figured out I was interested in lighting in my undergraduate studies when I was studying architecture. And there I fell in love with daylight and its capabilities to shape space. And as I was diving deeper into daylight, I realized I really was interested in light and was asking around like, is this a job or is this gonna be like my specialty as an architect? And eventually found my way into Parsons, the graduate school program in New York City, having an architectural lighting program.

00:02:26: Johanna Stückler: So first architecture and does it still shape your work today? I mean, of course it's related. It's within space, but what do you still take with you?

00:02:36: Quincy Drane: I definitely take the overall systems approach that architecture lends where you have to zoom out and understand the project as a whole and really understanding, you know, people first and how it is to be a user within the space.

00:02:52: Johanna Stückler: Was there maybe also a special moment when you said like, wow, light, this is a thing?

00:02:59: Quincy Drane: Yeah, so in undergrad, I was a part of a design studio, which is a class where you really are hands-on in making models based off of what you're designing. And in that studio, our group was tasked with understanding light as an object, as if it's its own material that is tangible, even though it's intangible. Just seeing the different effects that we were able to experiment and create really was awe-inspiring and helping to understand how light really does transform a space. And how you, when you're intentional with what the light is, you can create new ideas and new experiences.

00:03:47: Johanna Stückler: Thank you for sharing. That's beautiful. What are people most surprised of when you tell them what you do, what your job is?

00:03:54: Quincy Drane: I think they're most surprised that it's actually a job. Most people are like, oh, that's right. I guess someone does have to do that. That is someone's job. After that, if someone is kind of aware and that's not a shock, then they're most surprised on how technical lighting design can actually be in understanding the science behind light and how as lighting designers, we also are attuned with how light affects the human body, both in terms of what age you are or how it affects your eyes and how your eyes also affect what you see, how light will change that. So I think it is really exciting when people find out how technical the craft actually is and not just artistic.

00:04:42: Johanna Stückler: Is there something you're really, really proud of? Is there a project or whatever? A study?

00:04:49: Quincy Drane: I'm really proud of being the current president of Build, Black, United, Enlightened and Design Organization. It's a nonprofit that is creating a safe community space for black professionals within our design industry. And I always loved community building and working and being a part of different organizations. And so I'm honored to be standing as the president currently and helping the growth of the organization.

00:05:20: Johanna Stückler: Wish you very much luck with that. You told us about something you're proud of, what might be something of your job which is really not that glamorous or maybe it sucks or...

00:05:34: Quincy Drane: You just have to do it. There's a part of a process in a project where when you're ready to order things on site, so your fixtures can come to the project, you'll have to review a lot of documents that are called submittals to make sure what is being purchased is what you want. And depending on the project size or just the complexity of the project, it can be a long daunting sitting at your computer just looking through PDFs, checking, cross-checking documents.

00:06:06: Johanna Stückler: But yeah, you first picked out so many beautiful luminaires and in the end you also have to control it. It's really working.

00:06:13: Quincy Drane: Very important, just not as glamorous.

00:06:15: Johanna Stückler: If you were 18 years old now with the knowledge you have already, what would you do? What would your steps be to get into lighting?

00:06:26: Quincy Drane: I would probably do more research on like what schools have lighting programs, not many, but still trying to find that and then start talking to architectural designers because they're probably one of the closest — architectural, interior and then engineering. Those are the closest professions to knowing a lighting designer. And I also would probably just start paying attention to the light around me more and not just daylight. I've always loved looking at daylight, that's my daylight forever has my heart. But then for electric light, you know, really seeing how it's shaping my experience, like in restaurants, understanding when lights are dimming down, and really paying attention to that and like, do I like this? Do I not like this? And why, you know? A lot of us go into a space and have an opinion on light, but then don't really dig deeper into it unless it's a glaring light in your face and you're like, it's so bright. I love living in New York City. It's nice because there are lots of shops everywhere. And so just walking down the street and kind of seeing how each place has their light layout differently. So like seeing a hair salon and what chandelier pieces they have and or how bright they have their space versus a cafe in the evening where it's really warm colors and like dimmer lights not as bright. So it's fun to kind of just pay attention to what light is actually doing in each space.

00:07:58: Johanna Stückler: Thank you very much for a solid starting point. Please check out the International Association for Lighting Designers or even Build like Black United in Lighting and Design or just listen to us. Quincy, thank you very much for being here. It was lovely to have you here.

00:08:16: Quincy Drane: Thank you. This is so great. Thank you so much.

00:08:19: Johanna Stückler: Are you new to lighting or ready for more? Follow your curiosity. Start small and keep growing. There are degrees, part-time courses and events to dive deeper into lighting. Find further information in the show notes and at Lichtpodcast.org. Learning also happens in the community. Join lighting societies, local working groups and open meetups. Visit trade fairs and congresses globally and also in your region. You can meet people close to you and from around the world. Dates and links are in the show notes. You have been listening to Licht hören, a joint project of the lighting societies of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Thank you for listening. You'll find ways to connect with us through the comments or in the show notes.