Page 93 - enLIGHTenment Magazine - January 2017

under the radar

A
The idea for a
s high school students, Stephen and It took several months of research to develop
Carrie Fitzwater shared an inter- a working prototype, which was mostly derived
cordless lamp
est in creative arts. While dating from parts ordered from online stores that did not
throughout college, they certainly cater to the residential lighting market. Drawings
line came
never imagined themselves starting
were made, claims were led for U.S. patents, and
up a lamp company — but that is precisely what a prototype was nalized. The next step was deter-
about during
ended up happening.
mining how to bring the product quickly to market.
Carrie’s
Like many entrepreneurs in the lighting indus- Stephen utilized the contacts he made overseas
try, their path wasn’t a direct one. A er graduating from his previous experience developing lighting
tenure as an
college, the couple married and started a family, for major retailers, plus he had help from a good
se ling in Fort Worth, Texas. With a Fine Arts/ friend and sourcing agent in Asia. Thanks to a
interior design
Design degree under his belt from the University successful Kickstarter campaign, the husband-

of Texas at Austin, Stephen cut his design teeth and-wife team went from a working prototype consultant for
as a Senior Product Designer for Fossil, Pier 1 Im- to receiving their rst container of 6 SKUs in less

ports, and the Bombay Company before creating than one year.
Ethan Allen
his own design business Splitscreen Studio. Mean- By rst selling their handful of patented lamps
when she
while, Carrie applied her background in interior online, the couple was able to run their business

design to her sales and design consulting work for in a cost-e cient manner through a few select found herself
Ethan Allen and Po ery Barn before establishing e-tailers such as Amazon and Bellacor. The line

her own interior design consulting business.
took o and the company began growing steadily facing the
The idea for a cordless lamp line came about since its launch in 2012. Stephen and Carrie are

during Carrie’s tenure as an interior design consul- con dent that the time is right for expanding distri- same lighting

tant for Ethan Allen when she found herself facing bution to the trade and by targeting the hospitality
the same lighting challenge for clients again and market. Modern Lantern will be exhibiting at the challenge for

again. Many times the lamps her clients selected Dallas Market this month in the juried Design area clients again
could not be used in their homes because either on the rst oor of the Trade Mart (Booth 500).

the lamps were purchased for open oorplan liv- Reviewing countless articles and blogs, plus and again.

ing areas – which typically do not have enough observing requests for cordless lamps on popular
electrical outlets available – or she had to deal home décor sites like Houzz.com validated the

with unsightly cords clu ering the tops of tables couple’s instinct that they were onto something
and desks. The answer was a cordless recharge-

able lamp, but there weren’t any on the market

that completely resolved the issue. As a result, the
couple teamed up to develop their own solution.

Stephen purchased a variety of LEDs and bat-
tery packs to experiment with until they had a

working prototype that not only looked like a full-

sized table lamp, but provided a su cient amount
of warm light with an initial ba ery life of over 12

hours (today’s models operate for 20 hours on a
single charge). The rst goal was to achieve at least

a 40-wa incandescent equivalent (now there is

a 60-wa equivalent as an option) that o ers a
warm color (approximately 2900K).

This was easier said than done. Success required
balancing su cient light output and performance

time while using a compact rechargeable ba ery

pack. The ultimate goal was to o er all the necessary
functionality of a traditional electri ed decorative
This Bronze- nished ceramic table
table lamp while providing the technology inside to lamp is made in the Fort Worth area.
allow it to work anywhere, regardless of plugs.

january 2017 | enLIGHTenment Magazine 91