Oh man were we excited when we received a message from Kait that she would like to chat with us for a piece on HK Lux Co. in an upcoming issue of Swerve Magazine.  Swerve Magazine is a Calgary focused events and lifestyle publication that comes out with the Calgary Herald every Friday!  After we picked our jaws up off of the floor we were squealing with excitement (okay, Lacey was squealing, and Brett was high fiving) over this incredible opportunity to really share our little growing biz with the people of Calgary!  

We met with Kait on a Saturday in December for the interview at Brett's condo, in the East Village, where we've been doing the bulk of our work on HK Lux Co.  The day was beautiful and sunny - and it turns out the photography gods were smiling down upon us ;)  Yay when you look decent in a photo - and for the natural light that was spilling in.  Checkout the article and let us know what you think!  We'd love to hear from you in the comments section below!

The article can be found here:  HKLuxCo. in Swerve
And you can find more writing by Kait here: Kait's Website


OH!...and just a quick update on our lighting for purchase launch:  We're currently working through the CSA certification process to ensure that our lights are safe, and we're also working through the creation of custom pieces for our custom strings of lights - custom out the ying yang folks!  But as these things take time please stay tuned for blog posts here and for photos and updates on facebook, twitter and instagram while we work through these steps to grow HKLuxCo on our adventure to #LightUpYYC!

Initiation and Execution - That's what Brett stands for. Brett spent many of his childhood years on a farm. Having the freedom and time to explore his imagination and surroundings at an early age, his creativity grew and flourished. Dismantling bicycles, building forts and building cities out of Lego, creation was in his blood at an early age.

After moving around Alberta for a couple years with his family, he finally settled down in the Calgary area. In 2005 Brett attended post secondary education at SAIT where Brett found his calling in Design.

Since graduating in 2007 from Mechanical Design Technology, Brett has worked at many prestigious design and manufacturing companies where he has had the opportunity to build public art, electronics enclosures, architectural features, and heavy oil and gas equipment. Brett currently leads a design team at a local stainless steel manufacturer where he leads large scale custom manufacturing projects in the world of architecture and construction.

I've always been a creator. It seems the more I work in the industry, the easier things come to me. Design is my passion. It's what wakes me up in the morning and keeps me up at night. I'm in my element when I'm surrounded by trades people, like minded designers and creatives. Getting to help a creative or entrepreneur see their ideas go from thoughts and sketches to tangible objects, and working closely with the people who are building these objects is my reward.

If I could give advice to anyone, there are 3 things that I would say:

• Initiate - Your intrinsic motivation is key. If you don't love what you're doing stop. If you ever say to yourself "I wish I could.." then stop wishing and do. If you every feel like you're not moving forward, then move forward.
• Execute - We are our own worst enemies. The fear of failure, sometimes the fear of success? Don't procrastinate and just do.
• Find your passion - Not everyone is meant to be working a 9-5 job. If you ever think to yourself that you would rather be running your own restaurant, maybe you should be?

To close, I want to say thank you for your support and electric excitement as we #LightUpYYC. 

You Rock Calgary!

Instagram: @BrettKostka
Web: www.BrettKostka.com
Twitter: @BrettKostka
Facebook: brettkostkadesign

Born and raised in Newfoundland, Lacey Haskell, relocated to Calgary in 2005 with her high school sweetheart and a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Visual Arts, in hand...  

After a short time in the city I landed a sculpting gig with a local fabricator where I had the opportunity to work on some exciting and large scale public artworks.  Through the years I'd grown up through the local fabrication company discovering that hearding cats through forests is one of my specialities, and so I've found a natural fit in the role of Project Manager for custom fabrication projects ranging from large public artworks to science centre exhibitions.  

When I'm not Project Managing, or HKLux'ing, you will find me further pursuing my passion for making, holed up in my house, refinishing furniture and creating new home decor out of previously loved objects under the name Feathering My Nest. 

My loves are my fiancé, family, friends, kitties and a good bottle of bubbly... you can find me in a sweetly curated booth at local vintage markets around Calgary and all over the place on social media:

Instagram: @LaceyHaskell
Instagram: @FeatheringMyNest
Web: www.FeatheringMyNest.ca
Facebook: FeatheringMyNest

xo

Lacey

We are a fabrication company that specializes in custom marquee-style signs based in Calgary, Alberta. HK Lighting Company (HKLuxCo.) came to be when Calgary native, Brett Kostka, and Newfoundland transplant, Lacey Haskell, decided they wanted to create collaboratively and share their work outside of their 9-5.  

We needed a space to work closely with others in a creative capacity and to unleash our creations onto Calgary.  A text was sent, the idea hatched, and HKLuxCo was born in the Fall of 2014.  We talked (a lot), thought through the "how to's" for building custom marquee lights and we started making prototypes.  We wanted to be sure we could do it local, and do it well.  

We are firm believers in quality goods and supporting local.  We have sourced local, home grown, cutting and coating shops to do the work that we are not setup for, and we've also sourced local welders to stick our metal together.  When it comes to bending and breaking the parts, and fabricating the custom length light strings our hands are busy at work.

Calgary has a vibrant, and entrepreneurial supportive culture.  We've received so much encouragement so far and look forward to continuing to collaborating and grow while lighting up this beautiful city!

We're lighting up Calgary on social media too - check us out:

Instagram: @hkluxco
Twitter: @hkluxco
Facebook: HKLightingCo

#LightUpYYC

We take custom orders: hkluxco@gmail.com