The journey to the 2025 Casambi Product Award was not a quick one for ADesignStudio. It was a six-year exploration driven by curiosity, persistence, and a determination to redefine what portable lighting could become.We spoke with Alex Fitzpatrick, Creative Director of ADesignStudio, to uncover the story behind Choir. Blending poetic design with advanced lighting control, Choir draws inspiration from unexpected places, from Roman columns to Canadian beavers, and looks ahead to a future shaped by wireless power and connected ecosystems.
The Story Behind Choir
The idea for Choir began with a simple observation: portable lights rarely offer the level of control lighting designers truly need.
“Lighting designers are used to working within sophisticated control environments,” Alex explains. “But when it came to portable lighting, that level of integration just didn’t exist.”
What started as a concept inspired by client feedback quickly evolved into a six-year product journey, beginning around 2019–2020. The challenge was clear: to integrate professional-grade lighting control into a compact, portable form without compromising aesthetics.
That ambition ultimately led ADesignStudio to partner with Casambi, whose secure, proven control ecosystem became the foundation that made Choir possible.
Design & Craftsmanship
At the heart of Choir is a deliberately minimal base, described by Alex as “like packing a tight suitcase.” It is designed to house all electronics, the battery, and Casambi control technology within the smallest possible footprint.
The Choir launch collection introduces two distinct glass designs, each rooted in cultural and personal references.
Roma
Inspired by classical Roman columns, the Roma glass is blown into a complex three-part metal mold. As the hot glass meets cold metal, it creates subtle “chill marks”. These natural distortions produce unique light diffusion patterns, ensuring that each piece is one of a kind.
“The variations are part of the beauty. No two are exactly the same.”
Canmore
The Canmore series takes a more personal direction. It references Alex’s time in Canmore, Alberta, where the sight of beavers cutting through trees left a lasting visual impression. The glass adopts a simple cylindrical form, enhanced by a structural cut and a crackle texture that catches and refracts light with striking brilliance.
Together, Roma and Canmore embody Choir’s design philosophy: simple forms enriched by texture, story, and material honesty.
The Meaning Behind the Name
Naming the product was as intentional as designing it. After exploring several options, the team ultimately landed on Choir.
“A choir can be a soloist or a collective. It’s about harmony, community, and how light can create shared experiences.”
The name reflects how the product behaves in use. Choir is elegant as a standalone luminaire, yet becomes more expressive when grouped together. When networked through Casambi, multiple units operate in harmony, reinforcing the idea of light as a shared, collective experience within a professional lighting environment.
At a deeper level, the name reflects a broader philosophy. Like music, lighting is both technical and emotional. Choir brings these dimensions together through design, control, and connection.
The Biggest Challenge
The most demanding part of the process? Fitting everything inside.
Integrating Casambi control, electronics, and a battery into such a compact form required countless iterations and multiple prototypes. Over six years, the product evolved alongside Casambi’s technology, progressing through several chip versions until reaching the current generation with integrated antenna support.
Not every idea survived the journey. One feature that came close was induction charging. While promising in theory, scaling it for multiple lights introduced serious safety concerns. “At one point, the induction plate generated enough heat to cook food,” Alex laughs. The idea was shelved for now, but as charging technology evolves, it remains a possibility for future lighting products.
Despite the technical complexity, the team never lost sight of elegance and portability, a balance that ultimately defines Choir.
What Alex Is Most Proud Of
Beyond the final object, Alex reflects proudly on the broader impact of Choir.
“It pushed our design thinking. And it helped us articulate what we believe portable lighting can be.”
Winning the Casambi Product Award marked a meaningful close to the project’s first chapter, a validation of years of effort, collaboration, and belief in the idea
Advice for Designers Creating Smart Lighting Today
For emerging designers and studios entering the smart lighting space, Alex offers clear advice:
- Partner with established technology platforms instead of building everything from scratch
- Leverage design competitions to validate ideas and gain industry trust
- Focus on collaboration and perseverance – technical challenges are inevitable
“Working with strong partners like Casambi accelerates acceptance and opens doors. It allows designers to focus on creativity while standing on proven technology.”
What’s Next for ADesignStudio?
The journey of Choir is far from over.
ADesignStudio is preparing to launch new art-focused lighting products early next year, including artist collaborations that expand Choir beyond a single object into installations and collections. These works may appear at major international design platforms such as Copenhagen, New York, and across Australia and Asia-Pacific, including Singapore and Hong Kong.
Looking further ahead, the studio envisions Choir as a portable technology platform, expanding into pendants, large installations, and wireless power solutions like power-over-Wi-Fi that eliminate the need for hardwiring.
A Shared Vision
At its core, Choir represents what is possible when design ambition meets the right technology partner. By integrating Casambi’s control ecosystem into a beautifully crafted portable form, ADesignStudio has redefined expectations for portable lighting and sparked new conversations across the design community.
This project reflects a shared belief between ADesignStudio and Casambi that great lighting emerges when beauty, intelligence, and system thinking come together.
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