Mission

Brilliance Awards & The IES

The Illuminating Engineering Society Rocky Mountain Section is thrilled to announce our second year in leading the Brilliance Awards!

The IES is excited to continue supporting one of our favorite Denver lighting events. We understand the significance that this event holds to the Colorado lighting community and will make sure we uphold the standards set by the previous Brilliance Awards Boards.

Mission

The Brilliance Awards is a non-profit Denver based architectural lighting awards ceremony for the design community in the Rocky Mountain region. This awards ceremony is meant to honor exceptional projects in the field of architectural lighting, designed by firms and individuals in the Rocky Mountain region.

Goal

The goal of this event is to bring recognition to the excellent design and build community which exists in the region, and strengthen the relationships of the professionals in the fields of architecture, lighting, construction, and engineering. The event continues to grow every awards season in number of entries and attendees, and we are all looking forward to our sixth event.

Giving Back

Our hope is to give back to the community with each event. Each event year a non-profit is selected to receive the funds raised during the Brilliance Awards silent auction.

History

The Brilliance Awards was created in order to recognize the local lighting design community in the Rocky Mountain Region. It was conceived in 2011, spear-headed by Katherine Stekr, Rachel Fitzgerald & Chris Slaughter, with the inaugural awards ceremony taking place in 2013. The Brilliance Awards was started as a labor of love for those who saw a need for local recognition of the lighting talent in the Rocky Mountain Region, which historically was underrepresented in international awards. It has evolved to be a biennial awards ceremony that focuses on community, recognition, and giving back. What started as a joint venture between IESRMS, IALD Rocky Mountain, and DLF; and always entirely volunteer driven, the Brilliance Awards became a non-profit entity in 2014.

In subsequent years, the ceremony has grown in its attendance and reach, allowing for the addition of more project categories and awards to cater to the growing number of project submissions each cycle. This event is entirely funded by donations from the local lighting community, who see the value in recognizing excellent local lighting design projects and helping to provide a platform to further advance our industry as whole. The event itself is an evening of celebrating our close knit lighting community as we award and recognize the hard work and great design by our local lighting industry. Lastly, the Brilliance Awards recognizes the importance of giving back to our local community and has a silent auction which donates all proceeds to help a local non-profit. Each year we vote in a different non-profit to support.

The board keeps evolving, but our mission and focus remain the same, and we are excited to continue to add a new chapter to the story of the Brilliance Awards.

Stay Brilliant!