The Daylight Company's History

From the beginning…

Our founder, Patrick Jacquelin, is a natural entrepreneur, with a European family heritage closely linked to silk manufacturing which taught him the highest respect for craftsmanship and the inherent quality of materials.

anglepoise lamp

In the 1980s, living in London, many of his friends were artists, painters, and sculptors. Talk often veered to the subject of the difficulty of working with poor lighting. Around this time, Patrick rediscovered a forgotten technology, a blue tinted daylight bulb. He introduced it to artists at public shows, and it was an instant success. Next, he introduced it to people who craft, quilt and sew, who reacted even more enthusiastically. The Daylight Company was born.

The journey from these early beginnings to a worldwide company offering a range of specialised lamps in different markets was one of steady growth, based on simple unchanging principles. It became clear to Patrick, almost from the very beginning, that most people, who were passionate about their work had very specific visual needs, that were not satisfied by the conventional lighting available. He saw an opportunity to begin designing lamps that met their specific needs, and three guiding principles emerged, on which the company’s success has been built.

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First, it became clear that the “quality” of light went beyond providing the right colour temperature for colour matching and good contrast qualities. Optimum brightness and the right spread of light were of equal importance.

Secondly the light needed to be able to be positioned with ease, exactly where it was needed. This was a very different proposition if you were an artist using an easel, compared to a manicurist working on a client’s nails, or an engineer inspecting a circuit board.

Thirdly, it was obvious that the more the lamp’s aesthetic design appealed to the user, the greater the pleasure it would provide.

By 1995, Daylight had become a leading manufacturer of lamps for the arts and crafts market and began exporting to Europe. In the years that followed, the company developed lamps for people with sight loss, the health and beauty and industrial markets, and began selling in the United States and Australia.

True to its origins, the business entered new markets by listening closely to what customers needed. Patrick always claims, “We are not geniuses who hide away in a room and come up with a brilliant idea. We just know how to listen.”

Listening to customers and making lamps true to our three principles of providing quality lighting in terms of the right colour temperature, spread and brightness, the right ergonomics, and attractive contemporary designs is the basis on which all Daylight’s lamps have been created. Today the company is an established, global brand and recognised market leader and innovator.

patrick jacquelin