A Light Touch : Greg Tate of Huntington Beach uses unusual objects for his designs, but his first thought is for the shadows and patterns that will be cast when his lamps are turned on.

Perhaps nothing influences mood as much as light. An antique table lamp by an overstuffed sofa conveys warmth and comfort; diffused lighting can add elegance, brightly colored lights impart a feeling of festivity. And nothing kills a party faster than turning on bright lights.

For Huntington Beach’s Greg Tate, light is the first consideration when he designs his lamps.

“Light is primary, and the object comes second,” says Tate, 34, an architect with IBI Group in Irvine who creates his lamps in his spare time. “I’m interested in the shadow and patterns the light creates first.”

Tate’s lamps elevate simple objects such as a perforated piece of metal, an arc of frosted acrylic or simple chains hanging on a metal hoop--stuff found mainly at construction sites or hardware stores--to a kind of grandeur when light shines through them.

A metal-encased bulb reflects off an acrylic arc and bathes a wall with soft color; a light glows through broken green and gold glass shards, a blue light simmers in a lamp fixture made from a metal tomato basket covered with surfboard resin and fiberglass.

One of his more popular designs (of about three dozen) is a double-tiered lamp made of two car air filters and a jack stand. It is amazingly elegant. The air filter lamp is $175; other lamps range from $80 to $500.

“My lights are functional as well as artistic,” Tate says. “I want to embellish a functional light both with shadow and with the way a fixture is illuminated.”

When creating a lamp, one of the first things Tate does is determine how light will filter through it.

“Every time I see a metal screen or a particular pattern,” he says, “I know what kind of effect it will have on light and which of the many colors and sizes of incandescent bulbs to use to get the shadow and light quality I want.

“The key thing with lighting is to watch how the bulb’s positioned so it doesn’t burn your eyes when you look at it. A few inches can make a big difference. It’s not enough to just stick a light bulb in a socket.”

Tate uses a chrome-topped light bulb in some of his designs, allowing a person to look directly at the light without it harming his or her eyes.

Tate, who grew up in Orange County and has a degree in architecture from UCLA, picked up his interest in light and architecture at an early age. His father, George, a photojournalist in the 1950s and ‘60s, impressed upon him the importance of lighting.

Today, the walls of Greg’s modest apartment are decorated with some of his father’s black-and-white photographs, their starkness working well with the strong architectural lines of his lighting fixtures.

“In the 1970s, my father photographed architecture, and I have vivid memories as a child of being on construction sites, carwashes and garages in Orange County,” Tate says. “Those, coupled with what he taught me about becoming a visual person and looking at light, really influenced me.”

Another important influence on Tate was a trip he took in the late ‘80s to Paris, where “I saw modern furniture and contemporary lighting unlike any I’d ever seen before,” he says. “I came home . . . and started designing lamps.”

Tate says he is talking with a Los Angeles company, Azcast, about developing lighting fixtures using recycled aluminum as the primary material.

But using industrial objects does not mean Tate’s lamps are dark or depressing.

“I try to keep the proportions light and airy in my lights, even though I use very heavy materials like metal, concrete and wood,” he says. “I keep the original materials without coloring them.”

Tate also takes care with details, concentrating on welds, bolts and connections.

“The technical aspects of my work are very important to me,” he says. “That’s probably the result of the architectural training. Everything is very well handcrafted.”

Steve Hamlin and Linda Bonnikson of Orange can attest to that. They liken Tate’s lamps, which they collect, to “standing in the stars. We have one of his lamps in our dining room, and that’s all [the lighting] we have there,” Bonnikson says.

“We bought Greg Tate’s lamps before we had furniture. In fact, we’re designing the whole house around his work and that of some other artists. His work is technically exquisite and beautifully done. It really combines his love of architecture, design and spirituality with excellent technical capabilities.”

Tate says it’s exciting to turn on one of his lamps for the first time.

“The first time I turn it on, it’s full circle because I design it, I wire it, I want it to work the way I think it will,” he says. “It’s a massaging process all the way through.”

* Tate’s works are available at the Lab, 2930 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, or by calling (714) 960-4785.