2025 Howard Brandston Student Lighting Design Education Grant

Submissions Open
September 16

Go to Submission Form

About The Howard Brandston Grant

The Howard Brandston Student Lighting Design Education Grant was established to encourage and recognize students who have demonstrated exceptional professional promise through the presentation of an original and ingenious solution to a supplied design problem.

The Grant Award is a plaque and a grant in the amount of $1,000. Honorable Mention (if awarded) is a certificate and a grant in the amount of $300. The grant is awarded at the IES Annual Conference each year.

Group entries are acceptable. However, if a group entry is selected, each student will receive a plaque or certificate. The monetary grant will be divided among the recipients.

To be eligible to enter this competition, applicants must be enrolled as full-time students in an approved academic degree program. Approved programs are those offering a substantial core of illumination studies and are either engineering technology programs accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology; architecture programs accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board; interior design programs accredited by the Foundation for Interior Design Research; or theatre programs accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre. If there is a question about accreditation, please query.

The purpose of the Howard Brandston Student Lighting Design Education Grant is to foster good lighting and to advance the appreciation of lighting as an art.

Project Description

The project scope is focused on renovating the first level of a five-story high office in Sydney, Australia. The company has been in their space for 10 years now and are looking to modernize the look of their main spaces. As they are a company focused on innovating and looking to the future, they feel their first level looks dated. Since a lot of clients will be entering and moving through the building at this level, they want it to capture the company’s identity to set the stage that they are a leader in their industry. Project scope consists of vestibules, general lobby area, executive lobby area, corridors, breakroom and multipurpose space.

The office building is located between two streets with entrances on the east and west sides of the building. There is a 3-story office building across the street from the east entrance. And there is a 7-story mixed use building across the street from the west entrance. The office has two distinct lobbies to accommodate the employees and different clientele visiting. West lobby is for general employees and lower to mid-level clients and East lobby is for executives and high-level clients to use. Each lobby will have glass curtain walls facing the street with glass vestibules. It is important in these spaces that the transition from natural daylight to artificial light is smooth and consistent.

Connected to the lobbies are corridors that will continue the design language established in the lobby to guide the user to where they intend to go in the building. In the lobbies and corridors there will be art hanging on the walls as well as distinctive awards from their industry. The multipurpose space is a large common area that has many tables and chairs to be used in different configurations. The main uses will be for employee dining, conference meetings and can be configured for auditorium style seating for board meetings. In front of the multipurpose space is a lounge that is more of a relaxed space to take a break or collaborate with others in a relaxed setting. The southern wall is made entirely of glass and looks into an open courtyard with natural daylight coming in.
The ceilings will be GYP in the lobbies and lounge area. While the multipurpose space, corridors and entry vestibules will have ACT panels. The walls of the executive lobby and executive corridor are wood paneled. The walls for the lounge, entrance vestibules and two walls of the multipurpose space are glass. The other two walls for the multipurpose space are GYP. As well the walls of the general lobby and general corridor are GYP. Understand that ambient lighting levels must vary in different parts of the scope. The lobbies and multipurpose area are expected to have high ambience lighting levels while the corridor areas and lounge will have low ambience lighting levels.

As lighting designer, you are being asked to design the permanent lighting systems throughout the scope area. Lighting shall be well balanced and appropriate to the function and requirement of the spaces. The general lobby and corridor should look different from the executive lobby and corridor but still maintain a sense of similarity to the building as a whole. The lighting must have the ability to meet multiple needs for multiple scenarios without having to adjust and change lights for every use. But also establishing a unified design approach throughout the building. Being a connection point to all main spaces of the first level, the lounge design should incorporate the established language of the rooms that surround it.
Any other details necessary for the completion of your lighting design are to be inferred from the drawings and/or developed on your own. Requests for further information will not be honored as this would provide an unfair advantage.
The judges give added weight to your design concepts. While high quality presentations are expected, the judges strongly encourage entrants to clearly demonstrate their design concepts inspired by the space rather than simply producing elaborate computer graphics presentations.

Download Reflected Ceiling Plan [PDF 96.1 KB]
Download Floor Plan [PDF 93.9 KB]

Submission Requirements

Submit electronically (1) PDF file with maximum 15MB in size and no more than (5) 11X14 ledge or A3 size pages.

PDF file shall include the following:

1. Written statement (maximum 300 words) on project objectives, lighting design approach and concept.
2. Lighting plan (within project scope line indicated) with all light fixtures clearly labelled.
3. Illustrative materials demonstrating the lighting concepts. This may include, but is not limited to renderings, diagrams, sections, elevations, perspectives, and details. Inspirational and reference images are recommended.
4. Lighting fixture schedule. This must include, but is not limited to, fixture designation, description, and specific optic performance.
5. Conceptual lighting control intent (if applicable).

PROJECT OPEN: September 16, 2024
PROJECT DEADLINE: June 27, 2025
PROJECT JUDGING: By Mid-July 2025
GRANT NOTIFICATION: By End of July 2025

Questions should be sent to jferrell@ies.org.

Past Recipients