TUCSON, Ariz. – Lighting for Tomorrow, the National Lighting Fixture Design Competition, announced five winners this morning at the American Lighting Association (ALA) Annual Conference. Stephen Blackman, Director of Design and Product Development for Illinois-based American Fluorescent Corporation, took the grand prize of $10,000 for his chandelier design, Salem.

Three designers tied for second place, receiving $4,000 each:

Designer	Manufacturer	Design
Soren Momsen (Denmark)	Royal Scandinavia	BetweeN2ShapeS
Meg Hetfield (Massachusetts)	Lightolier	Soli
Manny Vieyra (Illinois)	Forecast	Torch

Ken Lau of PowerLux Corporation received a special Technical Innovation Award for his design of a dimmable electronic ballast that simultaneously runs up to six compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).

High-resolution photos of the winning designs are available on CD and on the Lighting for Tomorrow Web site.

BLACKMAN'S WINNING DESIGN
The grand-prize winner, Salem, is a six-light chandelier that features hollowed-out, heat-resistant wax candles surrounding the individual lamps. Using energy-efficient CFL technology, this fixture consumes about one-third of the electricity of a comparable incandescent lamp chandelier. Plus, it has a unique and decorative design.

"The average homeowner's image of fluorescent lighting is that it's harsh, too bright, hums and makes things look bad," said Blackman. "This fixture is designed to create an image of warmth. We feel that consumers would buy this fixture based on its appearance and pleasing ambient light. The fact that it is an energy-efficient design is an added benefit that would help consumers confirm their decision."

ABOUT LIGHTING FOR TOMORROW
Lighting for Tomorrow, launched in 2002, has achieved its primary objective of pulling attractive, high-efficiency lighting fixtures into the market. Scores of designers and manufacturers submitted entries to the competition's first judging cycle in 2003. Finalists were identified by an expert judging panel and were then invited to submit prototypes earlier this year. In total, 18 prototypes and production-quality fixtures were assessed by the judging panel in February.

"The results are promising," said Gary Steffy, a lighting designer from Ann Arbor, Mich., and a Lighting for Tomorrow judge. "We can now move toward much more efficient lighting without sacrificing a fixture's visual aesthetics, light intensity, color quality and light distribution."

Lighting for Tomorrow was organized by the American Lighting Association (ALA), Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) and the U.S. Department of Energy (represented by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory). Nineteen CEE members sponsored the competition.

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