Lessons From 10 Years Building an Australian Lighting Company | James Zagari

James Zagari is the co-founder of EST Lighting, bringing a carefully selected collection of architectural and decorative lighting brands to projects across Australia. He got into the industry by accident twenty-five years ago, walking in with zero lighting experience and walking out with a career.

In 2016, after ten years working alongside two colleagues at a previous lighting company, James co-founded EST on the back of a single phone call on a Saturday afternoon. Today the business represents twelve lighting brands, from precision European engineering to chandeliers made a few suburbs away in Melbourne, out of a showroom three times the size of the one before it.

This conversation covers the phone call that started EST, how James balances relationships with designers, manufacturers and clients all at once, and what ten years as a founder has actually cost him.

James Zagari, co-founder of EST Lighting.

Nearly Impossible to Judge on Paper

Chris

Lighting feels like one of the most impactful things in architecture, but it’s also one of the hardest things to explain. Is that something you’re always coming up against?

James Zagari

All the time. If people aren’t in the design world, lighting is an afterthought. You grow up with it, there’s lights on at home, and it’s just accepted. It’s when you stop and actually think about where you’re sitting and what the lighting is doing that it starts to sink in.

Chris

Is that the tangible nature of it? You have to be in the space to really get it?

James Zagari

Being and experiencing it certainly helps. The fastest thing we can do is get someone to experience it, whether that’s a demonstration or just a beautifully lit restaurant that feels so comfortable you can’t quite explain why. That’s when lighting is working.

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Lighting is pretty hard to talk about, but easy to feel and nearly impossible to judge on paper.

A Few EST Projects

Photo credits: Zella Casey Brown, Timothy Kaye, Steven Woodburn, Nicole England.

An Accident Twenty-Five Years in the Making

Chris

Where does all this come from for you? Were you staring at light bulbs as a kid?

James Zagari

It was an accident. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone in lighting who set out to do it, but everyone who’s had a taste of it really loves it. My first foray was out of desperation. I replied to a tiny ad in the paper for a lighting sales rep, and that happened to be with Philips. I got the bug because the Philips catalogue was bigger than a phone book. There was a lamp for everything, and it just opened my eyes to this crazy world. That was about twenty-five years ago.

Chris

Did that require you to understand a really technical side of the whole system?

James Zagari

It did, but there was no secret. I went in with zero lighting experience. Philips were really good at getting you excited about the technology, and from there you have to keep learning. I’m still learning now, honestly. Drivers, transformers, dimming, there’s a lot to connect together. That’s probably why there’s never a dull moment.

The Phone Call While Picking Strawberries

Chris

What led you to establish EST?

James Zagari

There was always something in the back of my mind. I’d worked with a couple of guys in Sydney for ten years, and we all had the same frustrations. I got a call from Seb one Saturday, out of nowhere, and he said, what are you doing in the next five years? He told me he was leaving and wanted me to come with him. I was picking strawberries with the family at the time. You know when something just feels right? It was an instant. This feels right. There was no hesitation, though I did talk it through with my wife, of course. And here we are ten years later.

Chris

How much trust did that take? You had a stable job, and you were bringing other people’s livelihoods into it too.

James Zagari

We knew each other well, even though we were interstate. I had a five-year-old and a three-year-old at the time, and that’s scary. But there wasn’t a moment that didn’t feel right, and I’ll always hold onto that. The signs were there. My gut was saying, this is it. The scariest part was wondering how long it would take to get projects rolling in, and the biggest surprise was that it was almost the next day. Clients and friends jumped straight on board. No hesitation. They’re still great clients today, ten years on.

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There’s never been one moment in the whole ten years I went, have we done the right thing.

Five Clients on Every Project

Chris

You’ve got relationships with manufacturers, designers, architects and clients all at once. How do you manage all of those touch points?

James Zagari

Almost every project, we’ve got about five clients we’re trying to keep happy. There’s the designer and architect, there’s the end user, there’s the electrician installing the stuff, and there’s the wholesalers too. If we do that right, that’s five more people going to tell other people about us.

Chris

Where do architects tend to sit in that mix?

James Zagari

Most of them, if they’re not really into lighting, are the first to admit it, and that honesty makes it easier for us to help. Then you get architects who really know what they want, and interior designers who understand exactly how lighting works and bring us a plan to run with. Every day is different: a small residential job one day, a casino or a high-rise penthouse the next. That’s what keeps it exciting.

What AI Means for Lighting

Chris

The inevitable AI question. How’s it changing things for you and the lighting industry generally?

James Zagari

I don’t know where it’s heading really, but I think it’ll be good for things like takeoffs. Somebody sends us a tender and a plan, and AI can count the downlights and measure the strips. Renders are already easier to get done, so a client can see a concept the same day. Eventually I think we’ll be able to drop a light fitting straight into someone’s render on the spot. It’s exciting, as long as it doesn’t ruin it for everyone.