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  News
  

Decorative Pendants with Shades stand out for clean aesthetic, technical sophistication and flexibility

The Product Innovation Awards (PIA) honor the most transformative products, systems, and materials that empower architects to reach new heights of creativity and performance in their designs.

The awards shine a spotlight on groundbreaking products and solutions, guiding architects, building owners, and specification influencers toward the creation of spaces that are both beautiful and highly functional. Judged by a distinguished panel of industry leaders, the program elevates manufacturers whose visionary concepts and advanced systems are shaping the future of the built environment. Amidst the thousands of new ideas introduced each year, the Decorative Pendants with Shades represent the pinnacle of excellence.

“These products stand out for their clean aesthetic, technical sophistication and user-centric flexibility.” – Architectural Product Innovation Award Judge

The Impact of Decorative Pendants with Shades

DMF’s X Series 3-inch and M Series 4-inch Decorative Pendants with Shades have rapidly become a defining element in contemporary architectural and interior design projects. Their influence is seen in several key areas:

Elevating Aesthetic and Ambiance

These pendants are celebrated for their ability to seamlessly blend high-output performance with refined design. The concealed hardware and die-cast aluminum shades create a sleek, symmetrical profile, allowing the fixtures to serve as both functional lighting and sculptural focal points. In hospitality and commercial projects, designers have used these pendants to establish visual rhythm and elevate the overall ambiance, making spaces feel both sophisticated and inviting.

Versatility in Application

With options for narrow, medium, and wide shade distributions, as well as multiple lengths and mounting configurations, these pendants have been successfully integrated into a wide range of environments — from open-plan offices and hotel lobbies to upscale restaurants. The field-cuttable cord or stem mounting allows for tailored installations, accommodating high ceilings and unique architectural features.

Enhanced Lighting Performance

The pendants’ advanced optical engineering — offering up to 3000 lumens, a full spectrum of color temperatures, and dimming down to 0.1% — enables designers to precisely select and control illumination. The shadowless uplight option, which allows for both direct and indirect lighting from a single fixture, has been particularly impactful in projects requiring layered lighting schemes. This flexibility supports both task and ambient lighting, improving visual comfort and energy efficiency.

Design Flexibility and Customization

Specifically designed for architecturally demanding indoor and outdoor spaces, these fixtures have been praised for their modular design, tool-less field-changeable optics, and embedded drivers for easy serviceability. In open ceilings and shallow plenum installations, the pendants have enabled designers to achieve both aesthetic and technical goals without compromise, including improved lighting uniformity, reduced glare, and enhanced user experience, especially in collaborative and hospitality settings.

The ability to select from various shade diameters, beam spreads, and color temperatures has empowered designers to customize lighting solutions for each project’s unique requirements. This has resulted in spaces that are not only visually striking but also highly functional, supporting diverse activities and moods throughout the day.

The Decorative Pendants with Shades are showcased in the November/December issue (page 58) of Architectural Products, with the 2025 honorees also noted on the magazine’s website.

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  News
  

Recognized for Simplifying Lighting Specification

The annual Product Innovation Awards (PIAs) presented by BUILDINGS magazine honor the most exceptional building materials and solutions, empowering professionals to design commercial spaces that are not only aesthetically remarkable but also highly functional and efficient.

Judged by esteemed experts spanning every discipline of building design and management, the PIAs illuminate manufacturers whose visionary concepts, products, and systems are advancing the built environment, setting new benchmarks for excellence and innovation.

The 4-inch and 6-inch commercial downlights feature a modular, tool-less, plug-and-play design and streamlined options, providing an exceptional balance between performance, serviceability and affordability.

Drivers are integrated into the modules, so modules can be easily and cost-effectively swapped out from below ceiling – no ripping out ceiling – making serviceability quick, and allowing flexibility for touch-safe, onsite changes.  This ease of use didn’t go unnoticed by the PIA experts.  One judge noted,

“The lumen options will provide the right light for any installation, and the tool-less replacement means designers can spec something beautiful that facilities can actually maintain.” — PIA Awards Judge

Modules feature an adjustable lumen switch allowing one module to be used throughout a building to meet different ceiling heights. In combination with the powerful light engine modules, the trims feature an integrated mixing chamber and wide-angle dispersion, providing high efficiency. Trim dimensions are one of the industry’s smallest in the 4-inch and 6-inch categories, offering more of an architectural look.

Streamlined options make ordering easy and fulfillment extremely quick. And even with the simplified options, there is no compromises in performance and light quality.

A complementing 4-inch cylinder pendant is ideal for projects that can’t accommodate recessed downlights, such as in open ceilings or retrofits into existing junction boxes.

View the C Series downlights in BUILDINGS 4^th Quarter print issue or online or on our website.

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  Technical
  

High Aesthetics, High Performance with Decorative Pendants and Trims

Performance Decorative Lighting masterfully blends striking aesthetics with advanced technical capabilities, empowering designers to create spaces that are both visually captivating and highly functional. This harmonious integration ensures that style never comes at the expense of performance, allowing every environment to shine with both beauty and purpose.

Key Highlights & Benefits

Design Flexibility & Sustainability

Lighting products that feature a modular systems offer effortless customization, allowing you to refresh the ambiance of any space by simply replacing decorative components.

These interchangeable elements enable cost-effective updates, ensuring the core lighting infrastructure remains intact — saving both time and money.

Enhanced Performance

Decorative elements like trims and shades improve lighting performance by increasing shielding and diffusion, reducing glare and enhancing visual comfort.

Solving for Style & Space Pendant Lighting

Pendants are versatile, seamlessly fitting into various lighting designs and layouts to provide focused, low glare illumination. An ideal solution for spaces where recessed fixtures can’t fit including shallow plenums and open ceilings, pendants provide the essential downlight layer, while also offering an optional layer of indirect light (uplight), adding depth and ambiance to a space.

DMF has introduced highly configurable Decorative Pendants with Shades with a diverse array of silhouette options to suit any design preference. The newest additions to the company’s 3-inch aperture X Series and 4-inch aperture M Series cylinder collections, the 15 decorative performance pendants are offered in three complimentary shade designs (Wide, Medium and Narrow) and in multiple lengths, giving designers distinctive solutions for architecturally demanding indoor and outdoor spaces.

Decorative Pendants Performance Benefits

The pendant’s decorative shades improve comfort by effectively extending the edge of the fixture, which increases the shielding angle, providing a higher level of visual comfort. By shielding the viewer from the direct light source, shades mitigate unwanted glare, resulting in a more comfortable and better-quality lighting experience.

Shielding Angle Study

The study of the 3-inch Decorative Pendant with Shades reveals the remarkable efficacy of cutoff angles in providing substantial shading, eliminating light spill and glare. Utilizing a tight-beam Narrow Spot (NS) optic, the overall lumen output and beam remain highly effective. Additionally, there is a slight concentrating effect, which increases the center beam candlepower.

Note: Photometric data provided is for 1000 lumens, 3000K module equipped with a NS Optic and a white finish. The accompanying photographs depict cylinders in a black finish, positioned approximately 9 to 12 inches from the rear wall, to effectively illustrate the beam and cutoff angle.

Decorative Pendants Photometric Performance

The adjacent tables demonstrate how cylinder shades

influence both total lumen output and beam angle across

various shade profiles and optic combinations.

It is important to recognize that increasing the shielding angle may diminish overall light output—this effect is especially pronounced with the Narrow Shade when paired with broader beam spreads.

Choice of Optic

For Narrow shades, the Narrow Spot (NS) and Spot (SP) optics are the most effective, offering minimal light loss.

When utilizing the Medium or Wide Shade profiles, there is greater flexibility to employ a wider optic if needed.

Note: Photometric data provided is for 1000 lumens, 3000K module in a white finish. Black finishes further reduce output by approximately 1%. Items shown in ORANGE denote shade-optic combinations with diminishing returns in terms of beam spread, which are not recommended combinations.

Decorative Pendant Applications

DMF’s Decorative Pendants with Shades deliver focused, low glare downlighting, available in a diverse array of silhouette options to complement any design aesthetic.

Expertly merging high-performance illumination with exceptional shielding, these pendants are ideally suited for:

Task Lighting: Perfect for illuminating countertops, reception desks and workstations.

Hospitality Spaces: Elevating the ambiance of hotels, bars and dining areas by creating an intimate and inviting atmosphere.

Open Offices: Offering stylish, controlled illumination that ensures a low-glare, productive work environment.

Decorative Downlight Trims

DMF’s M and X Series decorative trims introduce an elevated sense of style and visual intrigue to any space. Crafted from optical-quality acrylic and available in finishes ranging from frosted to clear, these trims are thoughtfully designed to interact with light in captivating ways. Their versatility makes them especially well-suited for low ceilings, compact areas, and environments that benefit from wide, soft illumination.

Below-Ceiling Intrigue: Each trim features an acrylic element that sits below the ceiling plane, capturing light and adding depth.

Custom Translucency:

Choose from varying levels of translucency —from fully frosted to clear to control the light effect.

Uninterrupted Beam:

The X Series Round Decorative Trims are fully open to the optic, allowing the beam of light to travel completely uninterrupted while still adding a decorative accent.

Decorative Trim Applications

Low Ceilings: 

The high diffusion and somewhat decreased center beam candle power make these trims great for low ceiling applications where wide beam spreads are needed to adequately cover a space.

Tight Spaces:

These decorative trims also cast a higher percentage of light up walls, making tighter spaces such as powder rooms and corridors feel brighter and more expansive, especially when there isn’t space for dedicated wall washing or accent lighting.

Decorative Focal Points:

Reception desks, display areas, and shelving units can be transformed by the distinctive aesthetic of decorative trims, elevating ordinary spaces into striking visual features.

Spas, Beauty Salons & Gyms

In settings where patrons may recline and gaze upward, decorative trims offer significant benefits. The lower center power, combined with higher diffusion and beam spread, can

significantly reduce disability glare from looking towards light sources.

For more information including detailed information on the Decorative Trims photometry, please reference our Performance Decorative Lighting Application Guide.