Esteemed designer Lindsey Adelman discusses her fascination with lighting 

By Sarah Emily Gilbert

You could say designer Lindsey Adelman “saw the light” working as an editorial assistant at the Smithsonian. While touring the museum’s Exhibition Fabrication Department, Adelman discovered the job she never knew she wanted: industrial designer.

In 1996, the English major received an industrial design degree from RISD, then went on to work for Resolute Lighting in Seattle before founding her own lighting company, Butter with David Weeks in 2000. In 2006, she established her name with the opening of Lindsey Adelman Studios in NYC. Fast-forward nine years and hundreds of chandeliers later, and you have one of the premier lighting designers in the country.

Edie in Black Marble by Mary Wallis for Lindsey Adelman Studio, Photo by Lauren Coleman

As a child, Adelman was constantly making costumes and outfits with basic materials like string and tape, but she never anticipated her technical inclinations would translate into lighting design. While her methods have evolved into highly specialized skills involving a team of 20+ people and a small network of local artisans, Adelman still reverts to her childhood toolset of tape and string to create her models.

Even though her studio produces a myriad of products ranging from custom tiles and jewelry to candle stick holders and gold clam ashtrays, it’s Adelman’s striking chandeliers that have her heart. More specifically, it’s what Adelman describes as light’s “instant gratification” that inspires her craft.

“Lighting has an immediate and dramatic effect on a space and the mood of a room. And so, this idea of working with an immaterial substance to transform is fascinating to me, and then working backwards to the source of that immateriality is fascinating, so it’s like you’re working with negative space a lot. And then it’s completely open-ended.”

The transformative qualities of Adelman’s chandeliers are largely rooted in their breathtaking designs that are a hybrid of industrial precision and natural forms. In fact, her studio’s very first chandelier, the Branching Bubble, beautifully captured what would become Adelman’s signature design aesthetic.

“I love weeds growing through cracks or covering a fence, or barnacles or fungus taking over surfaces. It feels super creepy and rich to me. And then, I think that the other side of me really believes in modernist Bauhaus-driven form, so that’s why all my components are machined and precise. But a huge part of what inspires and drives me is intentional imperfection and the intersection between those two elements.”

Still from Music Video "Show Me" made by studio last summer, photo by Lauren Coleman

The results of Adelman’s well thought out designs are matchless chandeliers that look more like art installations than lighting installations. This is substantiated by the places her work has been featured. From a campaign in the May issue of Vogue to an appearance in the “Show Me” music video, Adelman’s modern chandeliers have been highlighted in diverse sectors of the art world. In fact, the music video she made last summer will be premiering at Wright NYC from June 26 to July 1 and will include products developed from the video such as jewelry, lighting, mirrors, and candelabras.

Adelman’s work also continues to be shown in more conventional exhibitions like Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Design Miami, Nilufar Gallery, and BDDW. Whether they are in an art gallery or above a dining room table, Adelman’s designs spread more than light throughout a space, but also fill it with incomparable beauty.