Thursday, September 13, 2007

Home décor magazines announce new fashions every month. I’ve done it myself in advertising: Black is back. Go wild with color. The trend to tiny.

This is not as silly as it seems, because trends don’t replace each other anymore, the way they used to.

Black and white rooms can be fashionable, right along with passionately colorful rooms. All areas of fashion are behaving this way. When skinny pants come in, wide legged pants can still be chic. Some women wear six-inch heels and some wear deliberately ugly, highly technical sport shoes.  Either way, they’ve got the look.

Mini chandeliers are a big trend right now. But they have certainly not superceded classic sizes of crystal chandeliers. We may put mini chandeliers over the kitchen island and in our hallways and bathrooms, but we still need the magnificence of a full-sized crystal chandelier in the foyer and dining room.

When a new trend arises, it’s really just another interesting choice for the consumer. It’s not a totalitarian edict to drop every other option.

Having said all that, there is one trend created by Schonbek that changed the landscape of lighting so drastically, there’s no turning back. The past did not survive it. That was the introduction of Geometrix® high tech lighting. Bringing the brilliance of crystal into minimalist environments was an act of great daring, and it made all other high tech lighting appear hopelessly drab. Of course you can still choose purely functional high tech lighting designs, but you’re not making much of a statement if you do.

Schonbek has started many trends, major and minor. On the other hand, some new product introductions from Schonbek are not about new trends, but rather simply bring new life to classic design ideas. Nostalgia, for example, is a design theme that will always be with us.  The Rose, a new collection by Schonbek, is a whole new expression of nostalgia. This collection includes crystal chandeliers, lamps, wall sconces and pendants.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

As a consumer of lighting, I have reason to be grateful every day to Andrew Schonbek. And to his sister, Eileen Schonbek Beer. And to their father Arnold Schonbek. Their design talent has had a tremendous impact on my home life.

It’s due to them that I discovered the crystal chandelier. Copywriters don’t achieve fame (for the most part) or have much prestige in literary circles, but they do get to know certain products intimately.  My researches into the crystal chandelier have always been fascinating, especially since I learned not from books but from conversations with the Schonbeks.

Inevitably I feel prey to the charms of the crystal chandelier.

And so now my days start out beautifully under the influence of a Schonbek mini chandelier called Artifact. As I struggle to open my eyes, I see amethyst colored crystal pears. Light glints gently off the crystal, just from the natural light in the room. Crystal fruit is a nice breakfast for the spirit.

Bathing is sheer pleasure in my clawfoot tub, while a tiny La Scala crystal chandelier and matching wall sconces bathe the room in prismatic light.

Afterwards, a true breakfast (sometimes granola and yogurt, sometimes a wicked pastry) under a Versailles crystal chandelier. Versailles is an amazingly versatile style. It was ideal in the seventeenth century for the ornate rooms of the most ornamental monarch who ever ruled: Louis XIV. And it’s wonderful in formal rooms of the twenty-first century. But at the same time, curiously, it also works in a kitchen. The open-cage construction makes for a light and airy chandelier, particularly in smaller sizes. (The one I have is smaller than the image I linked to.)

In the evenings I read frivolous fiction on an overstuffed sofa by the light of a Zoe crystal lamp.

The best things in life are free. But investing in a few crystal chandeliers can  add a lot of enjoyment to the mix.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Andrew Schonbek will be in San Antonio, Texas tomorrow to be inducted into the American Lighting Association Hall of Fame. We’ve known about this honor for a while, but tomorrow is the official ceremony.

Andrew is the living representative of a dynasty of light. His great grandfather, Adolf Schonbek, started the company in 1870 in Bohemia. But Andrew Schonbek is being honored not for the past, but for the amazing contribution he’s made to the lighting industry. Under his leadership, the crystal chandelier has become a hot item in home décor. To start a whole new trend with a classic is quite an achievement.

Today the Schonbek company manufactures in the U.S., but Schonbek designs have always had a European flavor because of the company history. Andrew’s father Arnold Schonbek brought the company to the new world in a kind of double escape from the Nazis and the communists. He settled in Montreal, and that was where Andrew Schonbek grew up.

Andrew’s education was unusual for a future leader of the lighting industry: a year spent at Neuchatel Junior College, in Neuchatel, Switzerland, and a strong concentration on archeology at the University of Toronto, where he earned his BA in liberal arts.
 
College breaks were unusually productive for Andrew Schonbek. One summer he worked for a supplier of the Schonbek company, Gustav Lindner, in Kaufbeuren, West Germany. This job exposed him to the production, quality issues, and logistics associated with the crystal business. The next summer he worked in Germany as a metal working apprentice at the renowned chandelier manufacturing company, Palme & Walter KG. Here he learned how to hand-fabricate chandelier parts from raw materials.

After graduation Andrew joined Leviton Manufacturing Company, another Schonbek supplier, as a customer service rep. Leviton makes a huge variety of electrical wiring devices, including lamp holders.

In 1976 he earned his MBA from McGill University in Montreal, and joined Schonbek as a management intern. The background he had working in lighting companies in the U.S. and abroad was ideal preparation for working at Schonbek.

After his initial exposure to all aspects of the business, Andrew traveled extensively with the sales force and developed programs to grow the company. He was also involved in the implementation of Schonbek’s first computer system to handle basic sales and accounting functions.
 
Andrew Schonbek became President in 1981 at which time his father, Arnold Schonbek, became Chairman and CEO.
 
In 1990 Andrew became the President of the American Lighting Association. He initiated a radical overhaul of the organization, combining the Manufacturer, Showroom, and Rep divisions into an effective single body that is still in place today.
 
In the 1990’s Andrew focused on product development process and manufacturing process improvement at Schonbek. He originated the concept of fabricating complex three-dimensional chandelier components out of sheet metal using laser cutting, and is listed as an inventor on the Precision Chandelier Frame utility patent. This has represented a source of significant competitive advantage for the company. Altogether Andrew is named as an inventor on 54 of the company’s design and utility patents.

It’s impressive to list all these accomplishments. But the really impressive thing about Andrew Schonbek is his innovative thinking, his ability, for example, to go off on a tangent and evolve a whole new expression of the crystal chandelier, and uncover an entirely new market. He leads his industry, rather than being led by it. Watching him in the throes of new product design is very exciting, and often surprising.