The Scotsman

Lighting, says Mike Stoane, should be "quiet", not loud. It isn't about the show-stopping light fitting all the time, beautiful though those can be. It's about mood and ambience; it's about creating something you don't even notice. "The vast majority of fittings we make are about being very discreet so that walking into a space you don't notice them, but rather the light they produce," says Stoane. As he and his team of 20 celebrate the tenth anniversary of his eponymous firm, Mike Stoane Lighting, next month, it's clear the company has made a very successful business out of being discreet. The list of recent projects says it all. There's St Paul's Cathedral, where the team designed and supplied bespoke light fittings as a major part of the church's 300th anniversary restoration programme.