When you look at a light, what do you see? More perceptive readers have already asked, “When it is off or on?” For a light is at least two things: an object and a source of illumination. But when you look closer, and delve deeper into our relationship with lights, you realise they have a myriad of associations and are least of all a thing. A light can be an assistant, a companion, a friend. A light can also be a space, a mood, and an experience. One can go further and say that lights are works of transformative art: objects of beauty which not only change themselves when they are turned on but also the spaces around them. It’s this sheer beauty of lighting that has always fascinated me. We need beauty in our lives. As the architect Frank Lloyd Wright once observed, “The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes. If you ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.” This thought inspired me to set up The Lighting Centre, Guildford, in 1984. Since then, our family-based team has specialised in curating, recommending and supplying some of the world’s most beautiful lights. We deliver across the British Isles and beyond, supplying lights to clients internationally – from hotels in Kenya to private residences in Dubai. Today, we are one of the few suppliers in the UK who regularly attend the leading design shows in Italy. As a result of their influence, many of our products have won either the coveted Red Dot international design awards or the prestigious Compasso d’Oro Italian design awards. So when you next look at a light and realise it’s not a thing, or rather that it’s so many things, ask why settle for ordinary when you can live with beauty every day. And every night.