When Paul was at school, his teacher asked him to write a description of his dream job. Paul recorded that he didn’t like the idea of a desk job, and that he wanted to work with lots of people, as part of a team. He said he was interested in “science, maths, art, psychology and sociology”, and that – ideally – his future career would combine them all somehow.
Only a fellow lighting designer will recognise just how perfectly this list matches our day-to-day work.
As head honcho (and self-professed “head worrier”), Paul does… well, pretty much the same as all the other lighting designers – albeit with slightly more admin. He’s a “lead from the back” kind of founder – confident in the abilities, creativity and passion of individual team members to do their thing and make us all incredibly proud.
Paul has been involved in the design world ever since university. Starting out as a set designer, he was soon won over by light and its ability to create atmospheric spaces with no need for any other materials or equipment. It was only then that he learnt about the concept of “architectural lighting design”: lighting the real world rather than a stage set, and affecting the emotions of all who walk through it.
He’s worked in architectural lighting design for over 20 years now, setting up Nulty in 2011 after seeing how he could create an altogether better kind of lighting design company – one with a different approach to lighting, and a different set of values. (To find out more about the company and our ethos, click here.)
