ABOUT MICHAEL McHALE DESIGNS

“Lighting is the jewelry of your home. It is the first thing you look at when entering a room. It should be about something.”

Michael McHale Designs (MMD) was founded in 2007 by a creatively minded entertainment lawyer who was searching for a striking light fixture at a well-known design showroom.

"The materials in a lot of the lighting I saw were flashy but insubstantial. There was no statement other than 'look at me - I'm cool!'" McHale said at the time.  So, he began experimenting with gas pipes and fittings to create simple, evocative light fixtures, using their geometry to recreate traditional lighting forms.  But when high-quality crystal was then added, something extraordinary happened: 

By using these rough industrial elements that our eyes are trained to ignore, contrasting them with glamorous elements, and taking care to present everything in equal measure, the whole fixture became about something extraordinary: a study in rough vs. smooth, formal vs. informal, masculine vs feminine.  There is an "Of course!" quality to MMD's industrial-chic lighting -- and sophisticated people began to notice.

The Reaction

Within a few months of its founding, MMD was featured in The New York Times, which launched the company. Since then, MMD has been featured in dozens of publications including The Wall Street Journal, Dwell, Interior Design, New York Magazine, OK Magazine, Westchester Magazine, Hospitality Design, Cool Hunting, and Apartment Therapy, amongst others.

MMD has received hundreds of five-star reviews over the years. Clients have included Top Chef Tom Colicchio (pictured), US Senator Barbara Boxer, and advertising magnate Sir Martin Sorrell, amongst others. MMD built the largest chandelier on Broadway, numerous fixtures for marquee hotels all over the world, chic fashion showrooms in Doha, Shanghai and Dubai, and drop-dead gorgeous lighting for thousands of homeowners who are secure in their own good taste.

Over the past 15 years, MMD has exhibited at numerous trade shows over the years, including The Architectural Digest Home Show, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), High Point, Lightovation in Dallas, and The West Edge Design Fair.

"Michael McHale Designs is a well-respected lighting brand within the designer community, a reputation they earned by introducing innovative new collections over the years that consistently reimagine what high-end lighting can be, and that are all thoughtfully constructed in the USA out of quality materials."  - Linda Longo, Managing Editor, US Lighting Trends

The Innovation

MMD is always thinking about lighting -- what it is for and what it can do. Over the years, MMD has released various collections of lighting that always push the envelope. Sometimes it is ahead of its time, but its collections were always innovative, unexpected, and beautiful.

THE CRYSTAL CAGE COLLECTION

MMD developed its latest collection to solve a basic problem with LED lighting: LED fixtures are either lovely sculptures that don't provide enough usable light, or they if they do, that light is usually diffused through dull frosted plastic panels. For this collection MMD utilizes cutting-edge technology to shine powerful dim-to-warm LED light engines through stainless steel cages containing thousands of crystals for lights that shimmer and sparkle as much as any light ever made as it provides abundant diffused light that turns into shimmering golden embers when warmed.

THE MATRIX COLLECTION

This collection of lighting is actually a single fixture: a sleek frame designed to hold a vastly diverse collection of different decorative elements. 
  
Matrix owners can change the look of their chandelier with the seasons, for a special occasion, or on a whim -- all without having to call an electrician.

THE RAW COLLECTION

A perennial best-seller online, these fixtures are stripped of crystal and present themselves as raw, masculine objects.
 
Raw Collection fixtures are distinguished from other pipe-based lighting by their slimmer, more elegant lines, and by their hidden sockets.

THE BRYCE COLLECTION

Inspired by the work of architects such as John Dinkaloo, who updated Corinthian columns for the modern world, MMD design its own hardware to create an abstraction of the industrial gas pipe fittings it uses in its more famous collections.

These bespoke fittings were precisely carved by CNC machines out of recycled aluminum to create a sleek new look that replicated the forms of the Industrial and Tribeca Collections of lighting.

THE FUTURE

"We believe that, despite the proliferation of really interesting lighting over recent years, the lighting field generally remains conservative.  There are still an infinite number of creative avenues for amazing lighting that have yet to be explored, and we are ready to explore them. Recent advances in LED technology have only served to further open up the possibilities. We are in the functional art business, and that work will continue."

- Michael McHale