Raindrop Pendant Light | Blackjack Lighting

Raindrop turns a ceiling into weather. From each 24-inch square canopy hang nine white glass globes of different sizes, each on its own fine cord and each at a different height, so together they read as drops caught in mid-fall. The arrangement is irregular by design: the eye keeps moving through the cloud of spheres, finding new depth as you walk beneath it.

The system is modular. One canopy makes a 24 by 24 inch square with nine globes; two, three or four canopies joined end to end make rectangles of 48, 72 or 96 inches, carrying 18, 27 or 36 globes. Every globe is white glass lit by integrated LED, so each one glows evenly like a small moon. The canopy is the only hard edge: Matte Black, or Polished Chrome with a Matte Black backplate, giving a dark, flat ceiling plane from which the light seems to fall.

Design notes

• A field of light: nine glowing white glass globes per canopy, in mixed sizes, create depth and movement rather than a single focal point.
• Staggered heights: the pendant grouping is preset to an overall height of 43 in (109 cm) and can be adjusted in the field from about 30 in to 101 in (76.2 cm to 256.5 cm).
• Modular scale: 24 x 24 in square, or 24 x 48, 24 x 72 and 24 x 96 in rectangles, built from 24 in canopy sections.
• White glass: each sphere is white glass, diffusing the LED evenly all round.
• A dark ceiling plane: Matte Black, or Polished Chrome with a Matte Black backplate, so the canopy reads as a quiet shadow behind the light.

Specifications

Downloads

• Raindrop specification sheet (PDF)
• Raindrop installation instructions (PDF)

Stephen Blackman and Blackjack Lighting

Blackjack Lighting is the studio of industrial designer Stephen Blackman, its President and Chief Design Officer. Trained in industrial design at Syracuse University, Blackman began his lighting career in 1984 at Sonneman Design Group, then founded Blackman Design Associates in 1988, designing decorative and architectural lighting for manufacturers including Kichler. He launched Blackjack in 2013 in suburban Chicago, now based in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, to build fixtures conceived for LED from the first sketch.

His argument is that the LED should change the shape of a light, not just its efficiency. Rather than hiding a new source inside old bulb-and-shade forms, Blackjack designs around the small, flat, cool-running LED: thin discs, slim rods, glowing rings and lenses that let the light itself become the object. In his own words, "Decorative lighting by its nature is not primarily about optimizing lamp efficiency, it is primarily about decoration!" Raindrop is the most atmospheric expression of it: small LED-lit spheres scattered through space so that the light itself becomes the installation.

Questions

What is the idea behind Raindrop?

To suggest falling rain with light. Globes of different sizes hung at different heights from a flat canopy create a cloud of glowing drops instead of a single fixture.

Who is behind Blackjack Lighting?

Industrial designer Stephen Blackman, President and Chief Design Officer, who has designed lighting since 1984 and founded Blackjack in 2013 to make fixtures conceived for LED.

Which size and finish should I choose?

The 24 in square is a compact cluster of nine globes; the 48, 72 and 96 in rectangles extend the field to 18, 27 or 36 globes for long tables, counters and lobbies. Matte Black makes the canopy recede into a dark plane; Polished Chrome adds bright pendant hardware against the same black backplate.

How does the light look, and can it be dimmed?

Each white glass globe glows evenly at 3000K and 90 CRI, so the whole fixture reads as a soft field of light. It runs on 120-277V with universal dimming: TRIAC, ELV or 0-10V.

What warranty does it carry?

Three years on the integrated LED source and LED power supply, and one year on materials and workmanship, for the original buyer in the US and Canada.