What’s a Luminary? Five Illuminating Questions

Written by

Sierra Sutton Associate Creative Director |

Jul 12, 2016 · 3-minute read

Few BrightHouse terms inspire more curiosity and excitement than the word: Luminary. Our Luminaries themselves are often so flattered by the term that they add it to their resumes. And with good reason! Luminaries are some of the most important people in our process. Here are five quick questions to learn a bit more about them.

  1. So what are Luminaries?
    Luminaries are subject matter experts from a wide array of divergent fields. They bring new thinking and insight we can use to find meaningful roles for our clients to play in the world. By divergent, we mean they are never from the same industry as our clients, but are instead anthropologists, astronauts, mountain climbers, even jazz musicians, that offer us new ways of thinking about the challenges our clients face.
  2. Who are some of our Luminaries?
    We’ve had an editor from Lucas Films, founder of Woodstock, astronauts, biologists, social movement experts, historians, anthropologists, sex therapists, musicians, economists, positive psychologists, environmentalists, philosophers, and even a Catholic nun.
  3. What is a Luminary Workshop?
    Our Luminary Workshops are best compared to a salon or a Jeffersonian dinner, where you would invite people from different walks of life, all working in different fields with different backgrounds to have really important discussions about society and the world. The role of BrightHouse is to use our two decades of experience to lead these conversations, as a guide for both Luminaries and our clients. In these workshops, we ask our clients to suspend doubt and disbelief for a few hours, as we bring take them 30,000 feet in the air, making them think in ways they probably never have and also asking them to hold off on questions like, “how is a jazz musician or Broadway producer going to help my business?”, and instead to play in this space of imagination and curiosity. We do all the heavy lifting after, by bringing the ideas back down to earth as ways to impact our client’s business. One of our clients called the workshops “mental candy,” while several have said “this is the best day of my career” or “the most fun I’ve ever had at work.” That’s the power of new perspectives; it fuels a new outlook on everything else.
  4. How did BrightHouse come up with the terminology?
    We decided to call them Luminaries as a way to touch on the idea of illumination that these experts give on important topics, problems, and solutions. Luminaries bring light to insight. We use them to help us understand needs in the world, because only by understanding those needs can we find the impact brands can have in the world.
  5. How do you find Luminaries?
    Our first phase of finding Luminaries begins with understanding what makes a brand authentic and unique. From there we find themes specifically about the brand and what role they can play in the world. Then, we bring in experts on these themes who can bring new perspectives to light. These Luminaries help us to think outwards. For example, with one of our previous clients, a banking and finance firm, we brought in a biologist to help us understand how creatives can coexist rather than compete in an ecosystem.

Look for more inspiration from all of us BrightHouse on the blog. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for the latest insights on purpose.

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