Up Close with Jill Klores

By Shirley Coyle, LC

It was a great Physics teacher at Bronx High School in New York City who helped inspire Jill Klores onto a path that would eventually combine majors in Physics and Photography and lead into the world of lighting design. Jill’s study and love of photography, with light as a key element, sparked a suggestion from a thoughtful TA at University of Colorado Boulder that she should consider the Environmental Design program. She did pursue the BEnvD program at UC Boulder, in which students must take a survey course in architectural engineering, with 2-week mini projects including structural, electrical, IT, acoustical – and lighting. That lighting course served up another great teacher, Dave DiLaura. Jill was able to complete the full lighting program along with her Environmental Design degree.

Recruited directly out of the UC Boulder lighting program by Ledalite, an innovative luminaire manufacturer in Vancouver, Canada, Jill made the leap to working full-time as an Applications Engineer – and to living in another country. Moving a few years later to join the Vancouver-based utility BC Hydro, she worked as a consultant on their energy rebate programs, doing analysis for all commercial projects, from energy efficient lighting to whole building efficient design, including lighting, daylighting, HVAC and envelop systems.

By this time, Jill had begun, and eventually completed, the process to become a Canadian citizen; she now holds dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship. Her next opportunity came through the then-partnership of Earl Levin and Jim Benya, operating as Pacific Lightworks. They tapped Jill to open a Vancouver, Canada, office as part of their Pacific rim strategy. She describes the opportunity as a terrific one, where she learned how to run a lighting design office. This was the late 1990s, and Jill notes that the interest in the intersection of light and health for large healthcare facilities was just starting.

Following the death of the respected and talented lighting designer Craig Roeder, Pacific Lightworks was able to purchase his business in Dallas, TX. With business slow in the Vancouver market, and lots of work in Dallas, Jill relocated there “for 6 months to a year”…which become 20+ great years. By 2005, Jill had started her own firm, Essential Light Design Studio, LLC – and 17 years later, Essential Light Design has 9 team members in 4 cities.

Considering the challenges of the lighting design business, Jill describes the early challenges as getting the type of design business desired – for example, performing arts. She explained, “It’s hard to get the first one since you don’t have the experience, but once you’ve gotten an architect who does performing arts to take you on, then you can get the next one, and the next one.” As her studio has scaled in the number of people and locations, Jill notes the biggest challenge now is getting time away from the role of running the business, to the point of considering whether it’s time to get someone else to run it and get back to being a lighting designer.

And what does Jill love about her work as a lighting designer? “I love the wow factor of your client seeing and loving what’s been done – when you have taken the time to find out what they love, and have found a way to deliver it.”

Asked about important issues for the lighting community at this time, Jill highlighted the opportunities around light and health. “What we are learning, what we can do as an industry – we need to give education on what can be done with spaces, if not yet for physiological reasons that may need to be proven out, then for psychological and aesthetic reasons. There are a lot of manufacturers and designers doing good work – we need to take up the mantle to bring it to the public. We should acknowledge what we don’t know but go forward with what we do know. We could do so much for current spaces instead of always waiting for the next cycle of research.” Jill added that “we don’t do enough post-occupancy evaluations; getting funding for analysis of installed designed would help if the results are shared with peershere are the things that worked in our design – and as we get new info, we may need to make changes, correct choices.”

Jill attributes her success to putting people first – letting them grow, learn and pursue the kind of projects they want to do, and giving them exposure to different types of design work. She has also encouraged and supported her team members to start new locations, including New York City and Bentonville, AR. One recent addition in training provided to the team at Essential Light Design has been professional coaching on the skill of “storytelling”, a powerful tool in communicating with clients and collaborators.

By way of advice to newcomers to the lighting community, Jill suggests they think about what brought them into the industry (“like seeing the great lighting at a rock concert”). “What are those sparks, and then, how can you nurture those sparks in what you do?” She suggests talking to your employer about what it is for you, how you can feed those sparks, even if it’s only for a few hours each week. At Essential Light Design, employees are supported financially for IES, WELL and other course and committee work.

If the numerator in Jill’s path has been physics + photography + lighting, the denominator has been, and still is, climbing tall mountains. During an amazing climbing trip in Nepal many years ago with her father, Jill was pondering her choice of university. Her travel home from Nepal connected through Denver – and after seeing the beautiful mountains, Jill decided that UC Boulder would be her choice, not yet knowing she was then on a path toward a successful future in lighting design.