Lighting and Interiors Today meets the innovative founder of Asco Lights, Ajay Vasdev, to find out why his team are the go-to experts for celebrities and high-end clients seeking the WOW factor!
Ten years after innovative and stylish lighting company Asco Lights launched, the future couldn’t be brighter. A jaw-dropping showroom, a contact book filled with celebrity clients and an ever-expanding team of passionate designers means that the Manchester-based company has become one of the UK market leaders when it comes to creating show-stopping lighting solutions.
Founded in 2002 by pioneering entrepreneur and property investor Ajay Vasdev, the award-winning company has completed countless high-end lighting projects for national and international clients, both private and commercial, and in conjunction with architects, interior designers, home automation experts or electrical engineers.
Ajay believes that all beautifully lit spaces start with an imspired lighting design, and that people need to consider it very early on in planning an interior space to make sure that it’s as impactful as it can be.
“In our experience all too often lighting is considered far too late in the design process, much to the detriment of all those working on the project. Lighting design should be interwoven into the very fabric of the construction process to ensure that the spectacular architectual features that you have laboured over for many months are always views in thier best light,” he says.
“To simply present a lighting designer with architectural plans and task them with developing the lighting designs and circuit plans for a project is a waste of thier abilities – far better to use their expertise to develop truly spectacular results.
“Our skilled lighting designers are adept at merging the practical science of luminosity calculations, angles and postitioning with the art of forming just the right ambience for a space through the colour, intensity and adaptability of the light that this creates – and with a talented team of designers on hand to develop unique lighting solutions and bespoke fitting designs to meet the exacting needs of any project, the results can be outstanding.”
The team’s work is in demand. In addition to having worked on celebrity homes including top boxer Amir Khan, the Asco Lights design team have also worked on hotel refurbishments, high end developments and retail spaces, creating bespoke designs and eye-catching centre-pieces.
While the business takes its social responsibility seriously and is quick to advise clients are low-energy solutions to help protect the environment and implement significant cost savings, along with offering a range of state-of-the-art technological solutions, Asco Lights puts maximum emphasis into providing an end-to-end service that puts the client’s needs first, and into creating the perfect solution.
“It’s not good enough to take a brief and take over. To create truly memorable, practical and liveable lighting you need to completely understand your client and their needs – what the space is used form and how often. Great lighting design comes from understanding a client’s aspirations for their space, knowing their movements and most important focal points and designing around their personality and that of their family or business ethos.
“Every room has something of interest that a client will wish to illuminate. It might be an architectural feature or a reading space, a work of art or a wall full of family photos. These are the accents that punctuate the living room’s background lighting, and are often the personality that makes a space so important to the client,” he adds.
The first stop for any new client is the phenomenal new Asco Lights showroom, which has been designed to be a relaxed and informal space to inspire the imagination of anyone who visits. With the opportunity to control hundreds of lights in virtual room settings in order to test the colours, products and combinations of a lighting design all in one place, the showroom brings the options to life. Packed with high-end lighting products from well-known manufacturers such as Baccarat, Swarovski and Bocci, all displayed to encourage clients to envisage them in their own home or commercial space, the showroom operates on an appointment only basis to enable each client to receive a truly personal service.
With lighting designers on site, the showroom also has interior designers and lighting consultants, bespoke furniture makers and home automation specialists on hand to ensure that every customer has the full resource possible to achieve amazing results and bring any space to life with innovative designs and expertise. From show-stopping crystal chandeliers to colour-change and mood lighting that can be controlled at the touch of a button, clients will be in their element as they explore the possibilities and watch their future light up.
Priding themselves on innovative thinking, Asco Lights has launched two state-of-the-art new services to offer an enhanced customer experience – a 3D visualisation service to bring ideas to life, and a smart-hone app enabling customers to experiment with lighting design in the palm of their hand.
“The 3D visualisation service means that the space that the team have designed can suddenly be brought to life. 3D photo realistic images are produced from the CAD plans so that the client can see first-hand how the space, be it a kitchen, a hotel reception, a swimming pool or a lounge, will actually look, ” explains Ajay.
“The results are so much more tangible than traditional 2D sketches and visuals, and it allows people to fully appreciate the textures and effects involved as they are truly submerged into their amazing spaces.
“However proud we are of the showroom though, we know that in many cases, the customer likes to be in the driving seat, which is why we’ve embraced the rise of m-commerce to launch our own iPhone app.
“This enables users to effectively become the lighting designer for their own project, providing them with the flexible, adaptable means to view the many different combinations of lighting products and designs that could suit a space. Users are given the choice of a number of pre-loaded spaces or asked to upload a photo of the room in question before they start to add the lighting. They can then choose from an extensive range of lighting products, position them in the room and determine the direction and intensity of their illumination,” he says.
“It’s quite an unusual service and provides hours of fun! It’s been very well received, as in enables users to not only gain not only a small insight into what we do on a daily basis but opens up the opportunity for a new perspective on the illumination of a space,” he says.
The app can be located on iTunes by searching ‘Light Ideas’ by Asco Lights.
“Essentially, we provide an end-to-end service to ensure that all of our clients receive outstanding service every step of the way, from consultation phase right through to installation,” says Ajay.
“The lighting market today is more exciting than ever before, and we understand that to fully share its potential with our clients, we need to completely understand their requirements, and earn their trust, to demonstrate just how magnificent their space can be if they open up to us and allow us to fulfil its potential. It’s important that a design reflects the client’s tastes, not the designer’s, but that the client’s expectations are surpassed.”
