135 Years Of Light

An interview with Dragoslav Jozic, Consumer, Signify, Market Leader Benelux & UK & Ireland.

For 135 years, lighting innovation had one defining mission: bringing light into darkness. From a factory in Eindhoven in 1891, to the homes of millions – the story of Philips lighting, today known as Signify, is the story of light as human progress.

According to Dragoslav Jozic, the industry now faces a different, and in many ways “more exciting complexity”.

“Light became so normal, so efficient and so accessible that people stopped thinking about what it can actually do for their lives.” As lighting evolves from utility into experience, Drago believes the next era is not going to be defined less by specifications than by emotion, atmosphere and what it means to feel at home.

135 years of light is a remarkable milestone. What does it represent?
For me, 135 years represents much more than technology or innovation, which is important of course, yet it is a true representation of human progress. Gerard Philips, founder of Philips Lighting, had a conviction that now seems simple but was then radical: that electric light belonged in every home. That belief extended the day, improved safety and transformed lives across the world.

You speak about making light inspiring again. What do you mean by that?
I think the industry became very functional over the years, and in a way for understandable reasons. We focused on efficiency, specifications, energy savings, and cost optimisations. Those innovations were important and moved the industry forward enormously.

But somewhere along the way, lighting became almost invisible. Most people today only think about light when something stops working or when they move into a new home. And yet light affects us constantly. It shapes atmosphere. It influences how we feel, how we focus, how we relax, how we spend time together.

How is the role of lighting changing inside the home?
The home itself has changed. It is less and less just a place where we live. It became a place where we work, relax, entertain, recover, connect and express who we are. And light sits at the centre of all of those moments.

Think about the atmosphere during a family dinner – the warmth that draws people together. Watching a match with friends. A child finding focus while studying. The calm that descends at the end of a long day. Lighting can completely transform each of those experiences. And the tools to do this exist today, across a wide range of technologies – from high-efficiency LED solutions that simply perform better, to connected systems that adapt to people and moments.

What is the biggest misconception about lighting today?
That it is just functional. When lighting works well, people almost do not notice it consciously. But the moment you experience the right lighting in the right moment, you feel the difference immediately. The atmosphere changes. The emotion changes. The experience changes.

Light is one of the very few things in a home that can completely transform a space in an instant – without physically changing the room itself. That is an extraordinary power. And most people are not yet aware they have access to it.