Conversations: Icrave, NYC

Hailing from the Netherlands, known for its short days, Renée Joosten has an innate appreciation for effective lighting. “It’s very much my heritage,” she says.

As the lighting design director at Icrave, an internationally renowned New York City-based design studio, Joosten is witness to the myriad ways lighting creates mood and atmosphere.

And being headquartered in the heart of Manhattan, the city that never sleeps, means a steady source of inspiration and opportunity for creative illumination.

Unlike other firms where lighting designers are called in later in the process, Icrave interior and lighting designers work together closely from a project’s inception to develop a cohesive design scheme.

“Collaborating means the lighting is not an afterthought,” Joosten explains.

Icrave’s approach is to examine a project and determine precisely what the goals are. That’s where lighting comes in.

“It’s one of the best tools to tell the story of a space,” according to Joosten. “In a way, lighting is a kind of a character and a very important one.”

As she says, lighting integrally affects how a space is perceived: “Even if you have a big space, with lighting you can bring down the scale. And vice versa. You can actually open up the space. Light is magic in a way.”
Joosten also deploys special shapes and decorative lighting to make powerful statements and set a tone. The ultimate goal?