In conversation with...Rohan Blacker

​Today we have the privilege of speaking with Rohan Blacker, the founder of Pooky Lighting. He gives us a sneak peek into his journey into the world of lighting, the values of Pooky and what is next in the pipeline.

Tell me a little bit about your journey into Pooky lighting

​It has a been a relatively tortuous journey but incredibly fun! I initially qualified as a lawyer, but soon realised it wasn’t the thing for me. So, I jumped ship and went into catering for the best part of 20 years operating a variety of different businesses from restaurants, soup wholesale, commercial catering and eventually to high end food delivery services. That was amazingly fun and challenging. My business partner and I then decided to go into sofas and focus mainly online. At the time it was pretty revolutionary and despite lots of discouragement we slowly built the business of sofa.com up over 7-8 years. I started to live and breathe the shapes, fabrics, colours and spring systems. After selling up I decided to go into lighting, because lights are the number 1 thing that one should think about in their house. They make such a profound impact to the interior and the mood of any space. Equally I love the fact that you can turn anything into a light, you can be as creative or as wacko as you like and have a lot of fun with lighting.

It is clear how passionate you are about the importance of beauty and form and despite not specifically having come from a design background you have a definite understanding and appreciation of it, be it in sofa design or lighting.  Did you self-teach along your journey?

​I've always been an appreciator of beautiful things, I guess one can say I have an interest in beauty. Despite never going to interior school, I can tell you what I like and don't like and what works within a given space. I am very careful that I am not designing for myself, but for my clientele. I want to design stuff that lasts, I do not want to be making tomorrows landfill. One of my frustrations with the interiors market is that is has become like the fast fashion industry. People shouldn't be changing their interiors with the seasons as much as they do. When you buy something for your home, assume you will hold onto it forever and pass it down to your children. There are huge numbers of companies that make gimmicky lighting - they are quirky but are going to go totally out of fashion in a few months’ time. Not only because their design is fleeting and ephemeral but also the quality isn't necessarily great. Which is why most of our lights are made of solid brass, which doesn't rust and will last! 

How would you describe the Pooky aesthetic?

​I would describe it as above all decorative with a love of colour and shape. At the same time, our designs have longevity and classical roots. We have a lot of lights that are based on a very classic column, but we tweak, such as making a brass base, a green resin shaft and a brass pediment. An example of such is our Longford light, it’s a twist on classicism, not in a silly or quirky way but in a fresh way that will stand the test of time.

Who would you say is your quintessential customer?

​ I am trying to sell, beautifully well made, long lasting, decorative lights that are mid-market.  We start off trying to design for interior designers, who have responded well to our designs. We also sell directly to retail customers of course. We aren't low end at all, but as I said before, lights for a tenner are next year’s landfill. Our lights range from £40-£250, in contrast, at some high-end lighting stores one could easily spend £1000 on a lamp base.

What have been your biggest challenges with setting up Pooky lighting?​

​Our biggest challenge was getting brand recognition and awareness as well as taking a big financial risk. Because we wanted to sell pieces at an affordable price, we had to invest and buy lights in bulk. So, I had a warehouse full of thousands of lights, of which we didnt know would sell. I was there holding my breath, looking at my website, hoping that someone would come on and buy. Design is a risky business - you have as many flops as hits, you get better over time obviously, but no one has any certainty.

​What are your best sellers and which styles are less popular?

​(Chuckling slightly) Well now, the Metro light - is a beautiful slightly industrial, solid brass light in various finishes with a very strong design, but surprisingly not many people buy it! On the other hand, our best seller is the light called Trafalgar - it has a very simple design, a solid brass obelisk. It is very elegant but contemporary. It came from an offcut of brass on the floor that I saw in a foundry in Portugal which we put a very flat base on and kept it very minimal in design. Another light that is doing very well is the Stucco, we spent a long time agonizing over how big those petals would be, the shape of the light, how far apart the rows of petals should be.

When did you have that big "AHA!" moment when you realized that you were creating something special? 

​I don't like to be complacent about what we do, because the moment you start thinking that you have cracked it that is when the edifice starts to collapse, but it is great to read the feedback on our site. We have recently hit 10k reviews and virtually all of them are 5star reviews. Some of them are really quite moving as some people are really grateful of what we do.

What are one of the interior trends that you are loving right now and one that you are glad is over?

​Wall lights, despite quite a traditional vibe, have really come back and we love that. Also, people are much braver with colour than they have been, so even though someone might still not be brave enough to paint their full room in orange, they might slowly introduce bright colours in their light shades. Introducing pops of colour can create eye-catching punctuations. The trend that I am glad is over is gimmicky lighting. I think that quirky can be a good thing, it eludes to a sense of eccentricity and fun but if it is pushed too far it becomes contrived. Quirky for the sake of quirky will create short lived designs. 

What is the next thing that you are working on?

​We are launching our outdoor lighting which is exciting. People tend to be less brave with outdoor lighting as they see them as functional lights. We are trying to create a range of swan necks and lanterns that add that extra decorative edge to outdoor spaces.