September 1, 2018

Text: Anna Gibertini

LEDs Shine Brighter in Bold New Luminaire

It could be said that LEDs are the best thing to happen to lighting design since the invention of the incandescent bulb. These little diodes have been around since the 1960’s but were not a commercially viable product for designers until they were able to create white light. When white-light emitting diodes hit the market in the aughts, they set off a craze that is still going strong today. Lighting designers and manufacturers prize this new and exciting product for two reasons: They are significantly more energy-efficient than traditional bulbs, and their small size allows for unique shapes that electrify the market with style.

The Bolt light illuminates a car dealership with giant LED triangles. Photography courtesy of Prudential Lighting.

One example of the possibilities in form comes from Prudential Lighting. A made-in-America brand, Prudential has not only fully embraced the LED revolution, but leads the way in LED innovation. Their newest product, Bolt, can create uninterrupted streams of light in any row length to 1/16-inch increments. This makes Bolt perfect for building patterns for graphic-oriented lighting solutions.

Here the Bolt is used to create a zigzag pattern in a hallway and a hexagon pattern for a breakout space. Photography courtesy of Prudential Lighting. 

“We were getting a lot of requests from designers asking for better tools to create with LEDs,” says Jon Steele, general manager at Prudential. “Bolt provides that with what we call an ‘erector set configurability.’ We like to think of it as mostly light with a little bit of fixture.”

What this means is that if a designer can imagine it, she can probably create it with Bolt. Designers can create shapes as simple a square or a triangle and shapes as complex a hexagon or pentagon, as well as letters and words out of light. This last option makes Bolt especially well-suited for the commercial sector, although Steele sees the product fitting in just about anywhere. “Bolt has an architectural aesthetic that is highly adaptable to most spaces,” he says. “Its versatility is its greatest strength.”

The Bolt is unique in its ability to provide uninterrupted light, even in the corners of the square fixture. Photography courtesy of Prudential Lighting.

As with all LED lights, Bolt also contributes to LEED and WELL accreditations. For designers concerned with energy efficiency, Bolt’s three-sided lens design is highly efficient (up to 125 lumens per watt), offering increased energy savings when compared with most linear LED fixtures. Bolt also distributes the same amount of light from three sides, which reduces glare and stimulates the body’s circadian rhythms.

With products like Bolt on the market, the future of stylish LED illumination is looking brighter and brighter.

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