By SHIRLEY COYLE, LC
UP CLOSE WITH DAVID SEOK There was a time when David Seok expected to return to “being an architect ... After all, that was what my degree was in.” But, lighting had other plans for David. Challenged as a Drexel University architecture student to find an architectural internship during the recession of 2008, he worked reception at the AIA headquarters in Philadelphia, where a lighting design firm based in the building snagged him first. From there, David’s colleague, Rochelle Spahn, twice played an important role in his full conversion to lighting design, first getting David hired to help her with a three million square foot, thirty-two building project at the University of Pennsylvania campus. David recalled, “Without formal training in lighting, it was a really good way for me to see everything that was out there.” Rochelle moved on to The Lighting Practice in Philadelphia and reached out to David to recommend he apply. In 2014, David joined the firm. Moving to The Lighting Practice was “an important transition for me. It really helped me see lighting design as a career. It helped me to understand there’s so much more to the lighting world.” At The Lighting Practice there was encouragement for involvement in IALD and IES. Interestingly, the one (and only) lighting course that David had during his architecture degree at Drexel was taught by Jonathan Hoyle, now a Principal at The Lighting Practice. “Our firm has a pretty long history of teaching that course at Drexel. I taught that course for two or three years while I was in Philadelphia.” In 2019, David was promoted to Senior Lighting Designer and returned to his hometown of New York City as the firm established an office there. “I’m really grateful for the time I had in Philadelphia ... as a young, working professional, Philadelphia was a great place to start a career, and it helped me to understand the industry and form a relationship with the manufacturers and rep agencies in the area.” He continued, “Coming to New York was a shock for just how big the industry was!” David recognized the value of getting to work on establishing something new, saying, “I really appreciated being able to sit next to our founder, Al Borden, and our studio director, Tom Bergeron.” Reflecting on what success looks like, David commented, 92
designing lighting
“Barbara Horton does a really good job in one of her interviews talking about the different parts of running a firm—designing, chasing work, all the administrative stuff that makes the company run. That was very intriguing to me. Success can come in a lot of different forms. I’m really proud of what we’ve built at the Lighting Practice in New York, going from a small WeWork office for three people to having a full team of nine or ten now ... It’s been such an incredible journey.” Transitioning into his role as a Studio Leader has been a big challenge. He reflected, “I’m involved a lot more with business development—what’s the path to grow, how do we grow when so many of us are thinking just about lighting design—there is so much more to it. I was thinking about those things much sooner. Being part of starting a new office, I got to be involved a lot with recruiting and training new employees. That ties heavily to my founding of the Asian Lighting Community (ALC, along with co-founder Gary Wong from BOLD Architectural Lighting Design). The inequities, and how people are perceived, that really opened my eyes to a lot of things.” The founding of the ALC is something that David described as coming out of a goal to encourage more visibility and recognition in the industry. “Within the lighting community, we tend to hear the same voices again and again.” It’s an important reminder that we need to be offering opportunities for more fresh faces. David recognizes that effort is required to get visibility—building a brand, putting yourself out there. While David notes that making a name for yourself is important for those coming into the lighting community, he offered some additional advice: “You never really know who in your life is going to completely change your life trajectory. Don’t burn bridges, network as much as possible. That’s huge ... I never imagined that lighting would be something I built my career on, and yet, here I am!” Asked what his world is like outside of lighting, David laughed: “Fun fact about me —I’m married to another lighting designer, so the amount of lighting in our lives is very high. It’s hard to get away from, even on weekends. On date night we go to a restaurant, and we’re constantly analyzing lighting.” Other diversions he cited were “video games, comic books—and board games are huge for us. There’s a board game convention in Philadelphia that we’ve been to for the past four or five years, and we’ve actually found other lighting people there!” ■