On an industrial East Vancouver side street amid auto body shops, food processing plants and a smattering of creative agencies, there’s one business lit better than the rest: A-N-D. Step inside the lighting design studio and manufacturer and you’ll find a two-level workspace with 31 creatives; in the main room, some tap away at iMacs, others sip espresso, and all are bathed in the warm illumination delivered by A-N-D Slab pendant lights hanging overhead, which also work double-duty — thanks to their partial covering of Merino wool felt — to reduce acoustic ambient sound in the workspace.
In a bright back room, busy hands assemble fixtures with care; others load a van with boxes destined for Europe, Asia and the United States. A flight of stairs leads to an epicentre of material exploration (which could at any given time include fabric, concrete, aluminum,
