October 6, 2023 • 29 mins
Are you ready to be enlightened? Join us as we illuminate the subject of lighting design with our guest, Lu Phillips of Blingle Premier Lighting. Lu paints a vivid picture of how lighting can dramatically transform spaces, from landscape lighting that enhances the beauty of the evening to holiday lights that give life to festive occasions. We promise that, by the end of this episode, you'll see light in a completely different way!
Our exploration doesn't stop there. Venturing into the heart of Oklahoma, we uncover the artistry and innovation behind some of Blingle's most captivating projects. Have you ever wondered what a water tower would look like bathed in light? Or how an entire city block can be transformed into a themed holiday spectacle? Then this episode is a must-listen for you! Join us and Lu as we reveal how advances in technology and reduction in prices have made LED lighting an everyday marvel. Get ready to be inspired and discover how light can evoke emotions and bring magic into your spaces.
Follow BBB Serving Central Oklahoma on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn @BBBCentralOK
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Premiere, if done right, is all about integrity.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's Casey Farmer here with the Build, with BBB
Podcast, here with Lou Phillipsof Blingol.
Welcome Lou to the Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Thank you, Casey.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, Do you want to tell our listeners today a
little bit about Blingol?
What brought you to the podcasttoday?
What are some things that we'llbe talking about?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So Blingol is a new company in the state of Oklahoma
.
We've been here around sincelast November or so.
We are the Oklahoma version ofa national franchise.
So the franchise, the franchiseor is in Omaha, nebraska, and
we are one of the more earlyfranchisees for the company, so
(01:12):
we're doing a lot oftrailblazing actually here.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Okay, and when I stumbled across the Blingol team
it was by just complete happyaccident.
So for our listeners today whoare tuning in, you may not have
attended our Big Blue Bash inMay, but we got blinged out, as
I think you're, as Devin likesto call it, Devin's your founder
(01:35):
CEO.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
He's the owner of the franchise.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Owner of the franchise, devin is a hoot, but
he came to us actually after wehad started promoting Big Blue
Bash and said, hey, I would loveto bling out your event.
And just by that simple littlephrase I thought, wow, what does
that mean?
And that was your kind of firsttime doing that in Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Well for an event, yes.
So what you're bumping into iswe have four different types of
work that we do.
The one you just spoke aboutwas event lighting, but we
ordinarily put a lot of effortinto landscape lighting,
exterior landscape lighting.
We also do a version of apermanent holiday lighting that
(02:20):
goes generally around a roofline, and then we do temporary
holiday lighting, which is yourtypical Christmas string lights
and that sort of thing.
But what happened in the BigBlue Bash is we got this
opportunity to say listen, atthe end of the day, we're
lighting designers and we haveall this great product, but at
the end, I mean, you really justneed to put it up and really
(02:43):
experience it.
So the Big Blue Bash was funbecause we got a chance to
actually carve out pieces of anoffice building and convert it
to just this like party settingreally, and we bathed the place
in blue.
And it was fun working withyour team because there was a
lot of excitement on what wewere doing and how it was really
(03:05):
sort of transforming the space,and that's really important
because it really was for aresidence and, in some cases,
some of the commercial work wedo.
You have the building that youhave, it has the paint that it
has and whatever, but what weget to do is paint it all over
(03:26):
again.
We do, we did create somethingwhen the lights go out that
really doesn't exist any othertime and it's fun and it's.
It could be really captivating,it could be magical.
I mean that's if you think ofDisneyland, right, you think of
the twinkle you think of, likesomehow they've been able to
bottle magic and you can'treally do that at your own house
(03:48):
and I don't.
You know, most people don'tknow why.
Well, big part of it is the wayyou can play with light and we
have we have such a great timeas designers doing stuff that
you, that is unexpected and itand it, just it just alters what
you thought was possible insidean office space, as was the
case with the big blue bash, butvery often we do this with the
(04:11):
exterior of just people's homesand just it just blows people
away.
What can be done?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
yeah, and I will say from my perspective, going into
that, you know relationship withBlingle being an event
coordinator, though I lead themarketing department that event
falls under marketing and havingvery like no expectation for
what it meant to like bling outan event or create that type of
experience.
You know, I'll say for anybodyinterested in doing that, it
(04:39):
really changed the experiencefor our guests because people
had been coming to big blue bashfor years and years and I think
that this was our sixth, third,I might be a fifth or sixth
year we were hosting this eventand it's gotten bigger and
bigger each year.
Now to the point to where we're, you know, thinking are we
gonna have to go to a biggerspace in the future, which is
(04:59):
exciting?
We love that.
But the whole goal of it was towelcome people to our office
and so when we had board memberscoming to visit our office and
they've been to big blue bash inthe past and they walked in and
they were kind of blown away bythe experience that you created
with lights, I you know from myexperience I couldn't recommend
it enough because it reallyelevated an event that we had
already set an expectation forand helped us rethink okay in
(05:24):
the future.
Then what do we need to do?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
we kind of talked a little bit about it when we were
setting it up.
So the idea of the event hadits own merit, right, but the
how you pull it off has a lot ofcreative potential.
And so what we were talkingabout is, if you can, if you can
employ the five senses, thenyou can create a layered
experience.
So the idea itself doesn'treally have that.
(05:50):
And we came in with thelighting and and it wasn't just
lighting, we actuallyquarantined areas off and did,
you know, pipe and drape, andyou know we just changed the
nature of the place.
You had music, you had like,beer tasting right.
So you had the taste and soundalso there, right.
So we're elevating and we'readding layer on top of layers so
(06:12):
the thing actually becomes itsown experience, like Disneyland
can change your view fromTomorrowland into, you know,
small world or whatever, right,right.
So it's a very differentexperience and you're in the
same physical space, prettyclose, and in.
In that sense, that's what wewere doing.
(06:33):
We were adding, we were givingyou a chance to put a layer on
top of an experience to reallyhelp flesh out the whole idea of
what the blue bash could be andwe we've talked a lot about
event lighting but I don't wantto like you briefly kind of
touched on some of the differentthings that you do at blingle,
(06:53):
can you tell me maybe about aproject you're excited about?
oh my gosh, things are gettingreally interesting and actually
is interesting more on the sideof the business.
If you were to considerOklahoma City and Tulsa, well,
and much of the rest of thestate, generally, it's fairly
dark place.
I mean, in my mind I haveexperience in San Francisco and
(07:16):
LA and Seattle, denver.
Those places are light, lit up,they're bright.
Oklahoma City generally isfairly muted and we're actually
interested in doing somethingabout that, and so really the
more interesting projects areturning out to be some of the
more commercial stuff.
I'm in a discussion with one ofthe little outlying towns on
(07:39):
Route 66 about lighting theirwater tower, turning that into a
beacon so that they can see itfrom the, from the free way.
That's fun, that's crazy.
Who would have thought aboutlighting a water tower?
You know we're.
We're also considering a bigproject to another little
outlying city where they'retrying to transform their
(07:59):
Christmas holiday into aVictorian kind of theme and they
they have people for the lastfew years dressing up their
stage, carriage is going downthe streets, all kinds of stuff,
no lighting.
So now we're trying to actuallydesign a Victorian themed,
muted, kind of like a periodpeace, to transform a whole city
(08:23):
block.
That's totally cool.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
And with lights.
I think that maybe some of ourlisteners today don't know just
what all you can do withlighting, which was so much fun
to work with you on, because Ididn't know how much you could
do with lighting or what youcould convey with lighting.
It was a very small part of tome of something big that I was
doing, but then I realized howmuch of an impact it could make.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, well, you know, lighting is emotional.
When you do it right, it reallyis quite emotional.
What kills me as a lightingdesigner are street lights
because they're indiscriminate.
You know, if you're low quality, they just, you know, on top of
a piece of pavement and whenI'm trying to do something with
a building, a street light willreally hurt.
But when you really can playwith it, then a couple of things
(09:11):
you want to do.
You want to have a foundationof light.
If you do a lighting design,then you're trying to take the
darker areas and put a littlebit of light there.
It doesn't have to be, you know, the night sun, it just has to
be allow it to take the shadowsand the mystery out of a dark
area.
Two things happen there rightaway Safety and security.
(09:33):
All of a sudden you're nottripping over the stairs or the
steps and then you have security, because a lot of what happens
in the dark areas is not sogreat, right?
That's the whole point of thatThen.
Then you can play.
When you have a foundationallevel of lighting, particularly
in the landscape lighting, andthen you add, say, christmas to
(09:55):
it or Halloween to it or for theJuly to it, what you get is the
extra light that you put onyour house or your business
starts.
It's actually quite incredible.
The light ends up looking much,much bigger than it actually is.
You can take a couple ofChristmas lights, but when
(10:15):
they're on top of thisfundamental this like
foundational level of light, theChristmas lights explode.
It's like they're the onescreating all of this scene and
it turns out they have a bighelper in the background because
the foundational level oflighting design is already in
place.
It makes this scene come alive.
(10:37):
And that's actually a trickthat they did for Disneyland.
I'm telling you they reallyinvented a lot of what's amazing
about the emotional impact ofwhat lighting can do, and then
the impact of the seasons, andin Big Blue Bash we wanted to
bathe the thing with blue.
(10:57):
It was pretty simple that way.
But when you put twinkle inthere and you're trying to tease
out an emotion from a kid,maybe or a memory from an older
adult about you know, you startto settle into these memories of
what your life has been whenit's been particularly poignant
(11:20):
and there's a lighting componentthere Sunsets, sunrises, all
that stuff.
That's what people tend toremember when they think about
their vacations.
This is what I can play with.
We did a recent project for aperson in Edmund and he created
his backyard as a resort and wedid the lighting as if it were a
(11:43):
resort.
And now it's this place wherehe brings family and friends,
only to be in the space becauseit's somehow separate from
Oakland City.
It feels like Hawaii for him inhis backyard because of the
layered approach andparticularly what lighting can
do after dark.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
So changing gears a little bit.
My experience working withBlingle was communication in
such a positive way and that'salways important to me when I'm
working on any type of event.
But it was very clear to mevery early on that running a
(12:23):
solid business and ethicalbusiness is important to Blingle
.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhy BBB accreditation is
important to Blingle, what yourstandards are in the community,
how you serve people in thecommunity?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, yeah, I actually appreciate you saying
that.
So the name that we would havegiven you when we applied was
Blingle Premier Lighting.
I serve as a general managerfor this and when I have a
25-year history across the globe, when I took that on, I took
(12:58):
the word premiere to meansomething I didn't want to
associate myself with, somethingthat was shoddy or anything
like that.
So premiere to me connotes alot of integrity Saying what
you're going to do and thendoing what you say.
It connotes partnership.
It connotes you can go tosomething like lows and buy a
(13:23):
light, but it won't be what Ihave.
You can install it yourself,but you can't do it like I can
do.
There is a maintenance aspectof it.
So that means years down theroad.
What does premiere look like?
When things start to sufferright, connections go bad or
whatever, that becomes a serviceaspect.
(13:44):
So the word premiere for me iseverything.
I wouldn't do this work withoutit.
And then premiere, if doneright, is all about integrity.
It goes even deeper than thatin our case, because our owner
has a major disability.
I think that makes us better,because he is who he happens to
(14:08):
be.
We rise to the level of whatcan be done inside a context of
can't do it, shouldn't do it,whatever that is for people.
We don't play that game and itpromotes integrity, it promotes
inclusion, it promotes premiere.
(14:28):
If it ever deviates, you'll seeme on a plane somewhere else
because I won't play that game.
But as it relates to businessesaround the state, for example,
we are pretty unique in that wecover the whole state of
Oklahoma.
We recently got a pretty bigfootprint in Tulsa.
(14:51):
That was not something that waspart of the original, but the
need exists in Tulsa, just as inOklahoma City.
I think we're at the pointwhere we're still really deeply
exploring what can be done.
When it comes to serving thecommunity itself, we were very
close to being involved in thebig sculpture park project in
(15:16):
Edmond.
It unfortunately had some kindof issue and went away, but for
us to actually donate time,products, maintenance, whatever
it took to have that parkactually become a fixture for
the community turned out, wasreally in line with who we
(15:38):
invented ourselves to be on dayone.
Who are you as a business?
Why is it worth coming to workevery day?
All those kinds of questions wetackled really early and
strategically and one of thethings that we wanted to do
right away is, I want to sayMidtown, or say there are some
(16:01):
mural works, for example, aroundthe town, and we've thought
right from the beginning whatwould it look like to light the
murals after dark, to reallybring that portion of town and
the artistry of it out againsinking into the background?
So it's not about blingles,showing off a piece of art on a
(16:22):
mural, it's about the muraldoing its work and then having
this ability to translate whatthat could be into the evening
transforms the mural, transformsthe community.
It's just dramatic that way.
The sun sets every day andusually things disappear.
And we have this chance andthis is where the kind of the
(16:47):
fun of it against him, with thecommunity involvement to put to
increase the artistry of theevening and it, you know, and
different people need differentthings too.
You know, if I'm worried aboutsecurity and stuff, it's just a
lot of light and you know, andit's pointed in certain areas,
but almost in every case I tryto bring out the beauty of the
(17:11):
thing that we're trying to playwith, you know, and it's really
as unique as a thumbprint.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
But you do it so well .
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Well, thank you.
Yeah, you know, and that wouldbe you know.
So if we're in a sound booth,if I was a sound designer, I'd
be very, very concerned with thedetails of what it takes to
create a good sound, not onlyjust between us here, but also
on camera and in the filestructure, all of that.
It's a big problem to solve andif you were an expert in that
(17:43):
domain, you worry about thosedetails.
Relative to lighting, I'm very,I'm very studied up on it,
right, and I'm an engineer toboot, so for me there's an
artistry aspect to it.
I love that, but I'm actuallysometimes more encouraged
because the system itself is atechnical thing and how to power
(18:07):
it up, how to test for whatwhen things go a little wonky,
how do you do the designcorrectly so that when it
installs and installs as design,there's a system level
challenge there which is very,very technical.
The quality of the light, allthese kinds of things that
(18:28):
people never would think aboutif you're not a lighting
designer, like I wouldn't thinkabout the quality of this mic
because I'm not a sound designer, but yes, it can get very
complicated very quickly on theback end, but that's what it is
to.
I love Disney like there's justso many examples.
(18:50):
But you take this idea of buzzlight year and you make them
come to life through all kindsof cues in the environment and
then the kids really believe it.
And that's what I'm trying tobring to every project that I
have.
What is it about your housethat you love, and how can I
(19:13):
repaint it after dark in a waythat's just noteworthy, like you
find yourself wanting to be onthat front porch because you
love how people walk by yourhouse and comment on it.
This kind of thing is what wedo every day.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
I love your passion for it.
I will say like that's whatsold me pretty quickly in
working with Blingle is thatevery person on your team
believes in what you do andthat's amazing.
I love working for anorganization like that.
I love working with businesseslike that because it shows in
your work.
So you know a pause to you.
(19:53):
That's great.
So, as with many industries,and I would say you know more so
since this post pandemic worldthat we're living in.
But you guys have relaunchedpost pandemic your business in
Oklahoma.
I love talking about innovationand how things have changed.
Can you take me down someeither?
(20:15):
You know new lighting systemsthat have come, anything new
that you offer that maybe peopledon't know about.
Probably a lot of people don'tknow just the scope of lights
that Blingle offers.
I certainly didn't take me downthat route.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
If I were to come, I would do a design and I would
choose the things that seem towork in the particular ways that
that we're talking about,making your house or your
business lit up, thank you.
So I wouldn't get too worriedabout trying to figure that
stuff out.
You probably won't find most ofit in Home Depot anyway, if I
told you, what's sometimes moreinteresting is where we're at
(20:54):
kind of at this point indevelopment in the history of
lighting.
It wasn't very long ago thatLEDs were absolutely miserably
horrible.
Stream lights and stuff weremuch, much better with
incandescent little bulbs thatwe had that they would blow out.
You know the strings wouldnever work.
That kind of thing was verycommon just a few years ago.
(21:16):
Now, oh my gosh, leds are inheadlights because they're so
powerful and they're soeffective and they're so you
know you can do so much withthem.
So like that, we have adjustedso we don't do any incandescent
stuff, for example, or very,very little.
I haven't even done one that Ican think of while I go to
Oklahoma All of it's LED,because the technology matured
(21:40):
and also the prices came down.
It's ubiquitous now.
So not like that.
What's next?
So I would say that.
You know, in a lot of the housesthat we get to, for example,
people are trying to play aroundwith lighting and they do these
solar lights in their gardensand stuff like that, but they
almost never work.
(22:01):
They're not very bright and allof that.
But I would say that's whatexcites me Today.
You would not want me to comeand put a solar light in your
yard because the technology justisn't there.
Number one the solar cellsaren't that great yet, but
getting better by the day.
Number two the batterytechnology isn't that great yet,
(22:21):
but it's getting better by theday.
You'd think of all the electriccars that are out there now.
That was unheard of just a fewyears ago.
So, between battery and solartechnology, that, I think, is
going to transform what I doRight now.
It's reliable.
It's a lot more complicated toinstall because there's wires
(22:42):
that we have to deal with, butas I move forward, I can
absolutely see that you will notneed a lot of the hardware that
I currently really have to dofrom a professional point of
view to get the results.
And that's I mean, just likewith LEDs.
That is the transition.
And then, on top of that,incandescence was it?
(23:04):
A month ago there was anational ruling about taking
incandescent light bulbs off themarket.
So it's kind of to the pointwhere you're getting the stuff
we grew up with is consideredold enough and dirty enough
relative to the environment thatyou can't even buy it anymore.
(23:27):
To me it's a little bit mindblowing, but it's a really like
present day indication of wherewe've come and some things are
dropping off and where we'reabout to go relative to the way
the technology is going.
And then something like drawingtechnology, for example, we
will use that to light somethingin advance or something
(23:50):
outdoors somebody's house,building the water tower we
talked about, and then we'll flydrones around in order to
capture it from ankles and stuff.
So there would be tools likethat that would be available,
but, like I wouldn't do dronepresentations in the sky, for
example, that's out of scope forsomeone like me.
(24:12):
Remember where your lighting isat your home, at your office.
Drive down the freeways inOklahoma City and notice how
dark it still is.
And Tulsa, for example, is likeI said, we're expanding into
Tulsa.
Just notice that when you havean experience in a place like
(24:34):
Chicago, it just doesn't feellike Oklahoma City, and that
actually is, it's not bad.
Right, I'm not suggesting thatwe're somehow behind or anything
like that.
But when it comes to thememorabilia of place and what
and like I said earlier, likesunrises and sunsets are part of
(24:56):
what we are baked into ourenjoyment of our own lives and
part of what makes the city feelvibrant, I would say just
notice, first off, how darkstuff is and if you could do
something about it as just aperson on the street, what would
(25:20):
make you happy aroundrelighting your home or around
transforming a park wherethere's some art installed, or
some of these downtown districtsthat have a lot of vibrancy but
they kind of go dark after darkto the sunsets.
(25:41):
I think that's what I I don'tBlingo can help in all those
areas, but I think before we getinvolved with the lights and
the wire and designing and stuff, I think people just need to
get.
This place could be a littlefunner, a little better, a
little less dark, and it's notlike a problem, it's just like
(26:04):
notice.
And if you could transform that, if you could add that, the
five layers of design you knowthe site sound, taste, touch,
feel if we could add light, andit would create a deeper
experience of life for you, yourfamily, your neighbors.
(26:25):
I don't think that's a badthing.
I think you're moving forwardin your experience of the of
your journey on this planet.
So I think it starts with justnoticing the dark areas and
saying maybe I'm not okaywithout it anymore.
What would I do next?
And then there might be areason for us to talk, because
(26:48):
you might or may not have anidea about that, but you know
that's okay, you know, so let'splay, because sometimes it's
just a matter of play and maybeit doesn't go anywhere.
But then you have a new set ofideas about you know the life
you want to live around your ownhome or your business.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
So for those people or business owners who finish
listening to this episode andthey say you know, my life could
use a little extra light, howcan people connect with Blingle?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Sure, well, I'm sure you have our information and you
can put it on screen somewhere.
It's a we're.
We're headquartered in OklahomaCity, in Edmond, and we have a
little footprint going in inTulsa, but we we actually will
service the whole state.
In fact we're servicing Wichitaactually as well.
So we are one of the mostimportant lighting companies,
(27:47):
exterior lighting companies, inthe state right now and and I
can only see you know it gettingbetter that way because there's
such a, there's such a need Iwas joking with somebody
recently.
You know, Oklahoma City issomething of a lighting desert.
It just does lighting good,good, really beautiful lighting
(28:08):
just doesn't exist here inenough areas to have it feel
like some of the other places inthe country.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
And then I'm not going to promise, but maybe at a
future BBB event they might runinto you.
Oh yes, oh no.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
We're friends.
We've just begun ourrelationship, but we'll be long
friends.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
And who knows, maybe Big Blue Bash next year we might
do another partnership.
I think now everybody love thelights so much we might have a
hard time not doing it.
So, yeah, all good things.
Lou, thank you so much forjoining me for today's podcast
For our listeners.
You can stream it on BBB socialchannels I'm sure that Blingle
will also be sharing it and thenpretty much anywhere else that
(28:52):
you listen to podcasts.
But your time is so valuableand I appreciate you coming to
talk about lights and yourexcitement for it and this was
really for anybody listeningtoday.
It's just like a small glimpseof what I saw working with you
guys over.
I think it was like a month anda half that we ended up working
together getting ready for theevent and your passion for what
(29:13):
you do and the ethics that wentinto the work that you did.
It was really amazing.
So hats off to you.
Stay tuned for our next episode.
We appreciate you.
Make sure to follow and connectwith Blingle and BBB at BBB
Central.
Okay, we will see you next time.
Premiere, if done right, is all about integrity.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's Casey Farmer here with the Build, with BBB
Podcast, here with Lou Phillipsof Blingol.
Welcome Lou to the Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Thank you, Casey.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, Do you want to tell our listeners today a
little bit about Blingol?
What brought you to the podcasttoday?
What are some things that we'llbe talking about?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So Blingol is a new company in the state of Oklahoma
.
We've been here around sincelast November or so.
We are the Oklahoma version ofa national franchise.
So the franchise, the franchiseor is in Omaha, nebraska, and
we are one of the more earlyfranchisees for the company, so
(01:12):
we're doing a lot oftrailblazing actually here.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Okay, and when I stumbled across the Blingol team
it was by just complete happyaccident.
So for our listeners today whoare tuning in, you may not have
attended our Big Blue Bash inMay, but we got blinged out, as
I think you're, as Devin likesto call it, Devin's your founder
(01:35):
CEO.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
He's the owner of the franchise.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Owner of the franchise, devin is a hoot, but
he came to us actually after wehad started promoting Big Blue
Bash and said, hey, I would loveto bling out your event.
And just by that simple littlephrase I thought, wow, what does
that mean?
And that was your kind of firsttime doing that in Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Well for an event, yes.
So what you're bumping into iswe have four different types of
work that we do.
The one you just spoke aboutwas event lighting, but we
ordinarily put a lot of effortinto landscape lighting,
exterior landscape lighting.
We also do a version of apermanent holiday lighting that
(02:20):
goes generally around a roofline, and then we do temporary
holiday lighting, which is yourtypical Christmas string lights
and that sort of thing.
But what happened in the BigBlue Bash is we got this
opportunity to say listen, atthe end of the day, we're
lighting designers and we haveall this great product, but at
the end, I mean, you really justneed to put it up and really
(02:43):
experience it.
So the Big Blue Bash was funbecause we got a chance to
actually carve out pieces of anoffice building and convert it
to just this like party settingreally, and we bathed the place
in blue.
And it was fun working withyour team because there was a
lot of excitement on what wewere doing and how it was really
(03:05):
sort of transforming the space,and that's really important
because it really was for aresidence and, in some cases,
some of the commercial work wedo.
You have the building that youhave, it has the paint that it
has and whatever, but what weget to do is paint it all over
(03:26):
again.
We do, we did create somethingwhen the lights go out that
really doesn't exist any othertime and it's fun and it's.
It could be really captivating,it could be magical.
I mean that's if you think ofDisneyland, right, you think of
the twinkle you think of, likesomehow they've been able to
bottle magic and you can'treally do that at your own house
(03:48):
and I don't.
You know, most people don'tknow why.
Well, big part of it is the wayyou can play with light and we
have we have such a great timeas designers doing stuff that
you, that is unexpected and itand it, just it just alters what
you thought was possible insidean office space, as was the
case with the big blue bash, butvery often we do this with the
(04:11):
exterior of just people's homesand just it just blows people
away.
What can be done?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
yeah, and I will say from my perspective, going into
that, you know relationship withBlingle being an event
coordinator, though I lead themarketing department that event
falls under marketing and havingvery like no expectation for
what it meant to like bling outan event or create that type of
experience.
You know, I'll say for anybodyinterested in doing that, it
(04:39):
really changed the experiencefor our guests because people
had been coming to big blue bashfor years and years and I think
that this was our sixth, third,I might be a fifth or sixth
year we were hosting this eventand it's gotten bigger and
bigger each year.
Now to the point to where we're, you know, thinking are we
gonna have to go to a biggerspace in the future, which is
(04:59):
exciting?
We love that.
But the whole goal of it was towelcome people to our office
and so when we had board memberscoming to visit our office and
they've been to big blue bash inthe past and they walked in and
they were kind of blown away bythe experience that you created
with lights, I you know from myexperience I couldn't recommend
it enough because it reallyelevated an event that we had
already set an expectation forand helped us rethink okay in
(05:24):
the future.
Then what do we need to do?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
we kind of talked a little bit about it when we were
setting it up.
So the idea of the event hadits own merit, right, but the
how you pull it off has a lot ofcreative potential.
And so what we were talkingabout is, if you can, if you can
employ the five senses, thenyou can create a layered
experience.
So the idea itself doesn'treally have that.
(05:50):
And we came in with thelighting and and it wasn't just
lighting, we actuallyquarantined areas off and did,
you know, pipe and drape, andyou know we just changed the
nature of the place.
You had music, you had like,beer tasting right.
So you had the taste and soundalso there, right.
So we're elevating and we'readding layer on top of layers so
(06:12):
the thing actually becomes itsown experience, like Disneyland
can change your view fromTomorrowland into, you know,
small world or whatever, right,right.
So it's a very differentexperience and you're in the
same physical space, prettyclose, and in.
In that sense, that's what wewere doing.
(06:33):
We were adding, we were givingyou a chance to put a layer on
top of an experience to reallyhelp flesh out the whole idea of
what the blue bash could be andwe we've talked a lot about
event lighting but I don't wantto like you briefly kind of
touched on some of the differentthings that you do at blingle,
(06:53):
can you tell me maybe about aproject you're excited about?
oh my gosh, things are gettingreally interesting and actually
is interesting more on the sideof the business.
If you were to considerOklahoma City and Tulsa, well,
and much of the rest of thestate, generally, it's fairly
dark place.
I mean, in my mind I haveexperience in San Francisco and
(07:16):
LA and Seattle, denver.
Those places are light, lit up,they're bright.
Oklahoma City generally isfairly muted and we're actually
interested in doing somethingabout that, and so really the
more interesting projects areturning out to be some of the
more commercial stuff.
I'm in a discussion with one ofthe little outlying towns on
(07:39):
Route 66 about lighting theirwater tower, turning that into a
beacon so that they can see itfrom the, from the free way.
That's fun, that's crazy.
Who would have thought aboutlighting a water tower?
You know we're.
We're also considering a bigproject to another little
outlying city where they'retrying to transform their
(07:59):
Christmas holiday into aVictorian kind of theme and they
they have people for the lastfew years dressing up their
stage, carriage is going downthe streets, all kinds of stuff,
no lighting.
So now we're trying to actuallydesign a Victorian themed,
muted, kind of like a periodpeace, to transform a whole city
(08:23):
block.
That's totally cool.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
And with lights.
I think that maybe some of ourlisteners today don't know just
what all you can do withlighting, which was so much fun
to work with you on, because Ididn't know how much you could
do with lighting or what youcould convey with lighting.
It was a very small part of tome of something big that I was
doing, but then I realized howmuch of an impact it could make.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, well, you know, lighting is emotional.
When you do it right, it reallyis quite emotional.
What kills me as a lightingdesigner are street lights
because they're indiscriminate.
You know, if you're low quality, they just, you know, on top of
a piece of pavement and whenI'm trying to do something with
a building, a street light willreally hurt.
But when you really can playwith it, then a couple of things
(09:11):
you want to do.
You want to have a foundationof light.
If you do a lighting design,then you're trying to take the
darker areas and put a littlebit of light there.
It doesn't have to be, you know, the night sun, it just has to
be allow it to take the shadowsand the mystery out of a dark
area.
Two things happen there rightaway Safety and security.
(09:33):
All of a sudden you're nottripping over the stairs or the
steps and then you have security, because a lot of what happens
in the dark areas is not sogreat, right?
That's the whole point of thatThen.
Then you can play.
When you have a foundationallevel of lighting, particularly
in the landscape lighting, andthen you add, say, christmas to
(09:55):
it or Halloween to it or for theJuly to it, what you get is the
extra light that you put onyour house or your business
starts.
It's actually quite incredible.
The light ends up looking much,much bigger than it actually is.
You can take a couple ofChristmas lights, but when
(10:15):
they're on top of thisfundamental this like
foundational level of light, theChristmas lights explode.
It's like they're the onescreating all of this scene and
it turns out they have a bighelper in the background because
the foundational level oflighting design is already in
place.
It makes this scene come alive.
(10:37):
And that's actually a trickthat they did for Disneyland.
I'm telling you they reallyinvented a lot of what's amazing
about the emotional impact ofwhat lighting can do, and then
the impact of the seasons, andin Big Blue Bash we wanted to
bathe the thing with blue.
(10:57):
It was pretty simple that way.
But when you put twinkle inthere and you're trying to tease
out an emotion from a kid,maybe or a memory from an older
adult about you know, you startto settle into these memories of
what your life has been whenit's been particularly poignant
(11:20):
and there's a lighting componentthere Sunsets, sunrises, all
that stuff.
That's what people tend toremember when they think about
their vacations.
This is what I can play with.
We did a recent project for aperson in Edmund and he created
his backyard as a resort and wedid the lighting as if it were a
(11:43):
resort.
And now it's this place wherehe brings family and friends,
only to be in the space becauseit's somehow separate from
Oakland City.
It feels like Hawaii for him inhis backyard because of the
layered approach andparticularly what lighting can
do after dark.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
So changing gears a little bit.
My experience working withBlingle was communication in
such a positive way and that'salways important to me when I'm
working on any type of event.
But it was very clear to mevery early on that running a
(12:23):
solid business and ethicalbusiness is important to Blingle
.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhy BBB accreditation is
important to Blingle, what yourstandards are in the community,
how you serve people in thecommunity?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, yeah, I actually appreciate you saying
that.
So the name that we would havegiven you when we applied was
Blingle Premier Lighting.
I serve as a general managerfor this and when I have a
25-year history across the globe, when I took that on, I took
(12:58):
the word premiere to meansomething I didn't want to
associate myself with, somethingthat was shoddy or anything
like that.
So premiere to me connotes alot of integrity Saying what
you're going to do and thendoing what you say.
It connotes partnership.
It connotes you can go tosomething like lows and buy a
(13:23):
light, but it won't be what Ihave.
You can install it yourself,but you can't do it like I can
do.
There is a maintenance aspectof it.
So that means years down theroad.
What does premiere look like?
When things start to sufferright, connections go bad or
whatever, that becomes a serviceaspect.
(13:44):
So the word premiere for me iseverything.
I wouldn't do this work withoutit.
And then premiere, if doneright, is all about integrity.
It goes even deeper than thatin our case, because our owner
has a major disability.
I think that makes us better,because he is who he happens to
(14:08):
be.
We rise to the level of whatcan be done inside a context of
can't do it, shouldn't do it,whatever that is for people.
We don't play that game and itpromotes integrity, it promotes
inclusion, it promotes premiere.
(14:28):
If it ever deviates, you'll seeme on a plane somewhere else
because I won't play that game.
But as it relates to businessesaround the state, for example,
we are pretty unique in that wecover the whole state of
Oklahoma.
We recently got a pretty bigfootprint in Tulsa.
(14:51):
That was not something that waspart of the original, but the
need exists in Tulsa, just as inOklahoma City.
I think we're at the pointwhere we're still really deeply
exploring what can be done.
When it comes to serving thecommunity itself, we were very
close to being involved in thebig sculpture park project in
(15:16):
Edmond.
It unfortunately had some kindof issue and went away, but for
us to actually donate time,products, maintenance, whatever
it took to have that parkactually become a fixture for
the community turned out, wasreally in line with who we
(15:38):
invented ourselves to be on dayone.
Who are you as a business?
Why is it worth coming to workevery day?
All those kinds of questions wetackled really early and
strategically and one of thethings that we wanted to do
right away is, I want to sayMidtown, or say there are some
(16:01):
mural works, for example, aroundthe town, and we've thought
right from the beginning whatwould it look like to light the
murals after dark, to reallybring that portion of town and
the artistry of it out againsinking into the background?
So it's not about blingles,showing off a piece of art on a
(16:22):
mural, it's about the muraldoing its work and then having
this ability to translate whatthat could be into the evening
transforms the mural, transformsthe community.
It's just dramatic that way.
The sun sets every day andusually things disappear.
And we have this chance andthis is where the kind of the
(16:47):
fun of it against him, with thecommunity involvement to put to
increase the artistry of theevening and it, you know, and
different people need differentthings too.
You know, if I'm worried aboutsecurity and stuff, it's just a
lot of light and you know, andit's pointed in certain areas,
but almost in every case I tryto bring out the beauty of the
(17:11):
thing that we're trying to playwith, you know, and it's really
as unique as a thumbprint.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
But you do it so well .
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Well, thank you.
Yeah, you know, and that wouldbe you know.
So if we're in a sound booth,if I was a sound designer, I'd
be very, very concerned with thedetails of what it takes to
create a good sound, not onlyjust between us here, but also
on camera and in the filestructure, all of that.
It's a big problem to solve andif you were an expert in that
(17:43):
domain, you worry about thosedetails.
Relative to lighting, I'm very,I'm very studied up on it,
right, and I'm an engineer toboot, so for me there's an
artistry aspect to it.
I love that, but I'm actuallysometimes more encouraged
because the system itself is atechnical thing and how to power
(18:07):
it up, how to test for whatwhen things go a little wonky,
how do you do the designcorrectly so that when it
installs and installs as design,there's a system level
challenge there which is very,very technical.
The quality of the light, allthese kinds of things that
(18:28):
people never would think aboutif you're not a lighting
designer, like I wouldn't thinkabout the quality of this mic
because I'm not a sound designer, but yes, it can get very
complicated very quickly on theback end, but that's what it is
to.
I love Disney like there's justso many examples.
(18:50):
But you take this idea of buzzlight year and you make them
come to life through all kindsof cues in the environment and
then the kids really believe it.
And that's what I'm trying tobring to every project that I
have.
What is it about your housethat you love, and how can I
(19:13):
repaint it after dark in a waythat's just noteworthy, like you
find yourself wanting to be onthat front porch because you
love how people walk by yourhouse and comment on it.
This kind of thing is what wedo every day.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
I love your passion for it.
I will say like that's whatsold me pretty quickly in
working with Blingle is thatevery person on your team
believes in what you do andthat's amazing.
I love working for anorganization like that.
I love working with businesseslike that because it shows in
your work.
So you know a pause to you.
(19:53):
That's great.
So, as with many industries,and I would say you know more so
since this post pandemic worldthat we're living in.
But you guys have relaunchedpost pandemic your business in
Oklahoma.
I love talking about innovationand how things have changed.
Can you take me down someeither?
(20:15):
You know new lighting systemsthat have come, anything new
that you offer that maybe peopledon't know about.
Probably a lot of people don'tknow just the scope of lights
that Blingle offers.
I certainly didn't take me downthat route.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
If I were to come, I would do a design and I would
choose the things that seem towork in the particular ways that
that we're talking about,making your house or your
business lit up, thank you.
So I wouldn't get too worriedabout trying to figure that
stuff out.
You probably won't find most ofit in Home Depot anyway, if I
told you, what's sometimes moreinteresting is where we're at
(20:54):
kind of at this point indevelopment in the history of
lighting.
It wasn't very long ago thatLEDs were absolutely miserably
horrible.
Stream lights and stuff weremuch, much better with
incandescent little bulbs thatwe had that they would blow out.
You know the strings wouldnever work.
That kind of thing was verycommon just a few years ago.
(21:16):
Now, oh my gosh, leds are inheadlights because they're so
powerful and they're soeffective and they're so you
know you can do so much withthem.
So like that, we have adjustedso we don't do any incandescent
stuff, for example, or very,very little.
I haven't even done one that Ican think of while I go to
Oklahoma All of it's LED,because the technology matured
(21:40):
and also the prices came down.
It's ubiquitous now.
So not like that.
What's next?
So I would say that.
You know, in a lot of the housesthat we get to, for example,
people are trying to play aroundwith lighting and they do these
solar lights in their gardensand stuff like that, but they
almost never work.
(22:01):
They're not very bright and allof that.
But I would say that's whatexcites me Today.
You would not want me to comeand put a solar light in your
yard because the technology justisn't there.
Number one the solar cellsaren't that great yet, but
getting better by the day.
Number two the batterytechnology isn't that great yet,
(22:21):
but it's getting better by theday.
You'd think of all the electriccars that are out there now.
That was unheard of just a fewyears ago.
So, between battery and solartechnology, that, I think, is
going to transform what I doRight now.
It's reliable.
It's a lot more complicated toinstall because there's wires
(22:42):
that we have to deal with, butas I move forward, I can
absolutely see that you will notneed a lot of the hardware that
I currently really have to dofrom a professional point of
view to get the results.
And that's I mean, just likewith LEDs.
That is the transition.
And then, on top of that,incandescence was it?
(23:04):
A month ago there was anational ruling about taking
incandescent light bulbs off themarket.
So it's kind of to the pointwhere you're getting the stuff
we grew up with is consideredold enough and dirty enough
relative to the environment thatyou can't even buy it anymore.
(23:27):
To me it's a little bit mindblowing, but it's a really like
present day indication of wherewe've come and some things are
dropping off and where we'reabout to go relative to the way
the technology is going.
And then something like drawingtechnology, for example, we
will use that to light somethingin advance or something
(23:50):
outdoors somebody's house,building the water tower we
talked about, and then we'll flydrones around in order to
capture it from ankles and stuff.
So there would be tools likethat that would be available,
but, like I wouldn't do dronepresentations in the sky, for
example, that's out of scope forsomeone like me.
(24:12):
Remember where your lighting isat your home, at your office.
Drive down the freeways inOklahoma City and notice how
dark it still is.
And Tulsa, for example, is likeI said, we're expanding into
Tulsa.
Just notice that when you havean experience in a place like
(24:34):
Chicago, it just doesn't feellike Oklahoma City, and that
actually is, it's not bad.
Right, I'm not suggesting thatwe're somehow behind or anything
like that.
But when it comes to thememorabilia of place and what
and like I said earlier, likesunrises and sunsets are part of
(24:56):
what we are baked into ourenjoyment of our own lives and
part of what makes the city feelvibrant, I would say just
notice, first off, how darkstuff is and if you could do
something about it as just aperson on the street, what would
(25:20):
make you happy aroundrelighting your home or around
transforming a park wherethere's some art installed, or
some of these downtown districtsthat have a lot of vibrancy but
they kind of go dark after darkto the sunsets.
(25:41):
I think that's what I I don'tBlingo can help in all those
areas, but I think before we getinvolved with the lights and
the wire and designing and stuff, I think people just need to
get.
This place could be a littlefunner, a little better, a
little less dark, and it's notlike a problem, it's just like
(26:04):
notice.
And if you could transform that, if you could add that, the
five layers of design you knowthe site sound, taste, touch,
feel if we could add light, andit would create a deeper
experience of life for you, yourfamily, your neighbors.
(26:25):
I don't think that's a badthing.
I think you're moving forwardin your experience of the of
your journey on this planet.
So I think it starts with justnoticing the dark areas and
saying maybe I'm not okaywithout it anymore.
What would I do next?
And then there might be areason for us to talk, because
(26:48):
you might or may not have anidea about that, but you know
that's okay, you know, so let'splay, because sometimes it's
just a matter of play and maybeit doesn't go anywhere.
But then you have a new set ofideas about you know the life
you want to live around your ownhome or your business.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
So for those people or business owners who finish
listening to this episode andthey say you know, my life could
use a little extra light, howcan people connect with Blingle?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Sure, well, I'm sure you have our information and you
can put it on screen somewhere.
It's a we're.
We're headquartered in OklahomaCity, in Edmond, and we have a
little footprint going in inTulsa, but we we actually will
service the whole state.
In fact we're servicing Wichitaactually as well.
So we are one of the mostimportant lighting companies,
(27:47):
exterior lighting companies, inthe state right now and and I
can only see you know it gettingbetter that way because there's
such a, there's such a need Iwas joking with somebody
recently.
You know, Oklahoma City issomething of a lighting desert.
It just does lighting good,good, really beautiful lighting
(28:08):
just doesn't exist here inenough areas to have it feel
like some of the other places inthe country.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
And then I'm not going to promise, but maybe at a
future BBB event they might runinto you.
Oh yes, oh no.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
We're friends.
We've just begun ourrelationship, but we'll be long
friends.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
And who knows, maybe Big Blue Bash next year we might
do another partnership.
I think now everybody love thelights so much we might have a
hard time not doing it.
So, yeah, all good things.
Lou, thank you so much forjoining me for today's podcast
For our listeners.
You can stream it on BBB socialchannels I'm sure that Blingle
will also be sharing it and thenpretty much anywhere else that
(28:52):
you listen to podcasts.
But your time is so valuableand I appreciate you coming to
talk about lights and yourexcitement for it and this was
really for anybody listeningtoday.
It's just like a small glimpseof what I saw working with you
guys over.
I think it was like a month anda half that we ended up working
together getting ready for theevent and your passion for what
(29:13):
you do and the ethics that wentinto the work that you did.
It was really amazing.
So hats off to you.
Stay tuned for our next episode.
We appreciate you.
Make sure to follow and connectwith Blingle and BBB at BBB
Central.
Okay, we will see you next time.
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