About

For the Soul, a fragment as it were of the Primal Beauty, makes beautiful to the fullness of their capacity all things whatsoever that it grasps and moulds.

Plotinus

Narrative in Architecture: We hope that, in addition to keeping the rain out, our buildings will connect with their occupants on an emotional level, that the rhythm of its forms and spaces will beat in tandem to their emotional journey as they use the space.  I believe that lighting can uniquely help to tell the story of the architecture, that if the architecture has a narrative, lighting is the punctuation.

Lighting delineates the forms, it reveals the textures, it separates figure and ground.  Here, it says, look at this; don’t look at that.  When done adeptly it’s invisible, so perfectly does it heighten and emphasize the architecture.  But, unlike the balustrades and bulkheads, it is crucially dynamic in nature.  Responding to the occupants, helping them, changing to suit their purpose and taste; it aspires to our best ideals of humanistic design. And that’s why I’m a lighting designer.

About me: After graduating from USC (B.A. Mathematics, go Trojans!) and working for several years in L.A. as a theater lighting designer I switched to architecture, with stints at Visual Terrain in Los Angeles and Horton Lees Brogden here in my beloved adopted home of San Francisco. I’ve been so fortunate to experience working with light at its most ephemeral in the performing arts, and when applied with the rigor and polish of architecture great things are possible. I started Minuscule because I know that great design starts in a small room, because I’ve seen that collaboration can make something bigger than all of us, and because I want to operate a business with the same simplicity with which I approach design.  Let’s make beautiful things!

—Max