Professional Lighting Designers Association

The Professional Lighting Designers Association (PLDA), formerly known as European Lighting Designers' Association (ELDA+), is an international association of lighting designers whose work primarily involves them in architectural lighting design. Based in Gütersloh, Germany, the organisation was originally created as a European entity. However, since its founding in 1994, the organisation has expanded beyond the boundaries of Europe and has many members outside of Europe in Asia and North America.

Literature

Beyond a bi-monthly newsletter, PLDA's also has an official website containing literature. The official magazine of the organisation is Professional Lighting Design, in which the newsletter is printed, and every member has a subscription to the magazine. VIA-Verlag, the publisher of the magazine, retains very close ties with PLDA, as publisher Joachim Ritter is married to PLDA Director General Alison Ritter. Joachim Ritter also acts as treasurer of PLDA. PLDA shares its head office with VIA-Verlag.

Member formation

The membership structure of PLDA is intended to encompass lighting designers of all levels, and membership fees are organised accordingly. Student members form by far the greatest majority of members. "Design members" are qualified lighting designers whose work largely focusses on architectural lighting design. "Commercial affiliates" are similar to "design members", but are considered to have a vested commercial interest. The category of "professional" is reserved for respected independent lighting designers whose work solely involves lighting in architecture. The final category, that of "fellow", is largely reserved for past presidents of PLDA, although Director General Alison Ritter and treasurer Joachim Ritter also hold this title.

PLDA holds close ties with various universities in Germany holding diplomas relating to architectural lighting design, including the Hochschule Wismar, University of Technology, Business and Design and the Hildesheim University of Applied Sciences - a considerable number of the students of these courses and a number of the lecturers are members of PLDA.

Professional and Fellow Members of the association are given permission to append the suffix PLDA to their name.

Workshops

PLDA hosts a number of "workshops," in which various lighting projects are carried out in areas of a selected town or city within Europe, with the town of Alingsås, Sweden the most regular partner. Others have been carried out in Jyväskylä in Finland, Winterthur in Switzerland. In January 2006 one is planned for Birmingham, UK and in September 2005 one for Lüdenscheid, Germany.

Council

Policy making for PLDA is done by the association's council, made up (current of 2005) of the following members:

*President Prof. Jan Ejhed
*President Elect Paul Traynor
*Director of Membership Tapio Rosenius
*Director of Education Michael Rohde
*Director of International Development Kai Piippo
*Director for Standards of Professional Practice Heinrich Kramer
*Treasurer Joachim Ritter
*Director General Alison Ritter

External links

* [http://www.pld-a.org PLDA Website]
* [http://www.pldplus.com Professional Lighting Design Magazine]
* [http://www.hs-wismar.de Hochschule Wismar]
* [http://www.fh-hildesheim.de HAWK Hochschule Hildesheim]
* [http://www.alingsas.se Town of Alingsås]
* [http://www.via-verlag.com/pldc PLDC 2007 London]
* [http://www.lightvisions.dk/index.php?id=5 Light Visions Frederikshavn]
* [http://www.pool-of-light.co.uk Pool of Light]