Wireless Charging LED Desk Lamp with Color Changing Base (Item 1459751).
© photos courtesy of ottlite lamps

Bright ideas

OttLite Lamps bring the sunshine inside

by MARK RAY

Call it a lightbulb moment. Not long after becoming CEO of OttLite Technologies six years ago, CEO John K. Sheppard realized artists and artisans weren’t the only people who could benefit from his company’s products.

Since its founding in 1979, crafters, quilters and architects had been relying on OttLite table and floor lamps to brighten their workspaces. Designed to mimic natural sunlight, the lamps let them see more clearly and match colors more accurately.

“If you look at something under a typical LED light, and then you walk outside and look at it, it looks completely different,” Sheppard tells the Connection. “That’s why our lights within the craft channel were very well received.”

Thinking bigger

They’re still well received there, but the company has expanded its focus to include office workers and students. That’s because full-spectrum bulbs are easier on the eyes than typical LED bulbs, which emit too much blue light. “We were able to show that they created eyestrain—and that if we could balance that out, we could actually prove that we can reduce eyestrain by 51%,” Sheppard says.

OttLite’s ClearSun LED technology mimics sunlight better than standard LED bulbs. Many of the company’s lamps also feature its exclusive SpectraClean technology, which reduces bacteria on keyboards, mobile phones and other surfaces that the lamps illuminate.

Form follows function

The company works to make sure its lamps shine in more ways than one. “We spend a lot of time on creating lights that are going to be really cool on the outside too,” says Sheppard.

A good example is the Extendable Base Wireless Charging LED Desk Lamp. The lamp’s post features a digital display that has an alarm and shows the time, date and ambient temperature, while the base has a flip-up stand to hold a smartphone. The lamp includes both a USB port and a wireless charging pad for newer devices. You can choose from three brightness settings and three color-temperature modes using the touch-activated controls.

Clockwise: Executive LED Desk Lamp (Item 2121850);Wireless Charging LED Desk Lamp (Item 1577128); John Nash Ott working on a time-lapse movie to capture the growth of a pumpkin for Cinderella.
© photos courtesy of ottlite lamps

A Cinderella story

OttLite’s technologies are very much of the 21st century, but its roots go back nearly 100 years to when founder John Nash Ott began dabbling in time-lapse photography; two decades later he quit his day job as a banker to hone his technique.

Ott’s biggest project came when the Walt Disney Company asked him to film the growth of a pumpkin so animators could draw the transformation of a pumpkin into Cinderella’s carriage. There was just one problem: In the indoor photo studio he was using, the pumpkins kept dying. He tinkered with different lights and finally discovered that the proper range of light wavelengths—close to the range found outdoors—would make a pumpkin grow indoors.

Realizing that his research could have broader application, Ott founded OttLite Technologies in 1979. By the time he died, in 2000, the company was entrenched in the crafting and sewing market.

From the past to the future

Ott’s spirit of innovation lives on at the company he founded. In fact, Sheppard is already thinking a year or more ahead about other ways the company’s products can improve the lives of crafters, students and everyone in between.

The company has a bright future in more ways than one.