Lightology

Lightology is a Chicago-based retailer of contemporary, designer and commercial lighting that runs a physical showroom as well as an online store. Its showroom at 215 W. Chicago Avenue spans three stories of lighting design and artwork. Its stated goal is to educate customers on the intricacies of lighting design, so they come to appreciate the impact lighting can have on a home, office, store or restaurant. That emphasis on education suits a category where brightness, color and scale are hard to judge from a photo, which is why specialist showrooms let shoppers see fixtures lit in person.

The catalog covers chandeliers and pendants, ceiling, wall, bath, recessed, track and outdoor lighting, plus bulbs, controls, ceiling fans and furniture, and the company cites more than a million SKUs from hundreds of designers. Brands carried include Artemide, FLOS, Louis Poulsen, Moooi, Santa & Cole and WAC Lighting, which range from European design imports to architectural LED systems. Selling decorative fixtures alongside technical recessed and track systems lets one supplier cover both the visible and the infrastructural lighting in a project.

Customers can work with the company's staff through free lighting consultations by phone, by video or in the showroom, and the company also offers a design desk and an online project manager tool. A trade program offers extra discounts and support to interior designers, architects, builders, developers, electrical distributors and lighting professionals, and the company also hosts CEU sessions and events. This mix of homeowners and specifying professionals is typical of design-led lighting retail, where designers and architects often choose the fixtures their clients end up living with.