Lighting the Way
Santa Barbara Lighting Company glows with legacy
Santa Barbara Lighting Company founder Jimmy Rickard has created a legacy that he shares with his daughter, Marion Rickard, photographed at Casa de la Guerra.
Written by Jennifer Blaise Kramer
Photographs by Kim Reierson and Candace Fox
For a lot of homes and landmarks in Santa Barbara, the finishing touches are as important as the foundation. Light fixtures are one way to speak to a structure’s heritage, and when created authentically, they can blend in timelessly. The handcrafted, eight-sided De La Guerra sconce, for example, is a modern icon from Santa Barbara Lighting Company (SBLC). Even brand new, it looks like it has belonged here forever. The lantern is part of a line of legacy products designed to withstand decades to come and, built by a sixth-generation Santa Barbarian, paves the way for future generations to keep the brand’s glow alive.
Jimmy Rickard, founder of SBLC, has deep roots in this city. His great-great-great-grandfather José de la Guerra was widely considered the first citizen of Santa Barbara. Jimmy’s grandfather, John T. Rickard, was a Superior Court judge of California and the city’s mayor. (The Santa Barbara Airport terminal is named after him.) He married Marion Foster from Des Moines, Iowa, who was so full of elegance and charisma that Jimmy named his own daughter after her. But it was John T. Rickard and his encouragement that would lead Jimmy into this career.
Lead lighting designer and architect Britt Jewett and Rickard sketch future lighting designs.
“My grandfather was known as a fair person and a judge, and his many accomplishments as mayor that have preserved Santa Barbara’s beauty and character over the years have been a tremendous inspiration to me,” Jimmy recalls. “He instilled in me the message to accomplish my goals and create something meaningful.”
“It’s not just a light, it’s a piece of art. It’s the jewelry of the house that makes it really special.”
And so he has. But like the best business stories, the road to SBLC wasn’t a straight line but more of a connect-the-dots path toward problem solving. After graduating from the University of Arizona and working in New York, Jimmy felt the pull back to his hometown and started in real estate before shifting into development. “I loved building and being creative and would put everything I made right into the next house,” he says. As his homes got bigger, the finishes got nicer—except for one element: lighting.
“I found myself carefully choosing and investing in high-end finishes for my homes, yet I couldn’t find many options for well-designed, quality-made exterior lights,” he says. “What I wanted was something unique and timeless, and I couldn’t find it. I had this thought: I should create a lighting company—I saw the window.”
Finished lanterns (De La Guerra 04 and 08) hang on a home in Montecito.
Shortly after this epiphany, two things happened. First, 2008 came; real estate crashed, and development halted. Next, Jimmy met architect Britt Jewett and took one look at his hand-drawn sketches, and that window got wider. The two quickly teamed up—Britt drawing and Jimmy building—to create prototypes of the types of lights they felt should exist in Santa Barbara.
“I enlisted local artisans and finished and shipped the lights from my garage on Pedregosa,” Jimmy says. Armed with a nothing-to-lose mentality, Jimmy was determined to build something and grow it from the ground up, which he did independently, without partners, reinvesting every dollar he earned back into the company, while putting his head down and getting to work alongside Britt. “I have an engineer’s mind, and Britt has an architectural mind. He’s always considering how artisans built things without modern-day production methods.” Together they devised a small line of architecturally designed, handcrafted lighting authentic to Santa Barbara heritage, first sold under the name DLG Lighting, nodding to the De La Guerra family.
“The Santa Barbara name feels a part of me; it translates to the country and all around the world as a place of beauty and quality,” Jimmy says. Those early garage days of collaborating, designing, and sketching with Britt gave Jimmy a chance to quietly hone the look and feel of what he wanted to put out in the world, something that would also feel very much at home.
“In every one of our lights there’s something that feels familiar, with methods and materials of early metal craft,” says Britt, who has dozens of pattern books in his Meridian Studios office on 1920s Revivalist and Spanish Colonial Revival ironwork, railings, and architectural accents that he applies to the lighting designs.
The De La Guerra 08 Arm Mount photographed by Heidi Lancaster.
As each penny was poured back into the business and the roster of clients steadily grew, one very special customer changed the course of the company. In 2014 producer Ryan Murphy found them on their website and reached out along with his designer, Stephen Shadley. While it was just one light that initially caught Murphy’s eye, he ended up ordering more than 250 custom and collection pieces. An avid art collector, Murphy saw something distinctive and began customizing options to fit his home.
“I have all this art in my other homes,” Murphy told Jimmy. “In this house, I want your lighting to be the art.”
The collaboration (which is still ongoing) catapulted the business to new heights. “That statement gave me the confidence and motivation to make that project the very best it could be, and in many ways, it became the catalyst for Santa Barbara Lighting’s success,” Jimmy says.
By 2020, the company rebranded into Santa Barbara Lighting and created an extensive online store. Jimmy expanded the team to 12 people, with reps across the country. He also opened a 10,000-square-foot advanced production facility just south of Santa Barbara, with in-house design and engineering teams ready to create, modify, and customize lighting while maintaining a high level of quality control.
“From the beginning, it was extremely important to me that we could manage all aspects of production under one roof,” Jimmy says.
The Santa Barbara Lighting Company team at their Southern California facility.
Gratitude runs deep for his clients’ loyalty, as well as for the stepping-stones it took to get here.
As both the labor and love for SBLC continue to grow, so does his vision. Jimmy joined The Makers Alliance, founded by Dave Dawson of Urban Electric, composed of like-minded founders and CEOs of luxury home goods manufacturers; he joined round tables around the country where he gets to bring a bit of Santa Barbara to others and collaborate with the best. SBLC now has clients across the country, including Hawaii, with iconic designers such as Stephen Shadley, Michael Smith, Mark Sikes, Ken Fulk, and Jacquelynne Lanham, to name a few. SBLC has created lights for these designers’ own homes, as well as for their clients and creative homeowners looking for unique finishing touches. SBLC collaborations include Stephen Shadley and Una Malan, adding to the SBLC collection. The company’s engineering and technology have evolved with detailed 3D renderings that allow designers and clients to see fixtures from every angle, explore finishes and glass options, and see the lights illuminated digitally.
“It’s not just a light, it’s a piece of art,” Jimmy says. “It’s the jewelry of the house that makes it really special.” And for a city that loves to celebrate its special heritage, Santa Barbara is seeing sparks of SBLC around town, including Lotusland with Harrison Design, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, restaurants Los Arroyos and Bibiji, and the renovation of the historic entry lanterns at the Santa Barbara Mission, where the fixtures look every bit original.
“I want to make my family and legacy proud,” Jimmy says. Looking forward, he includes his daughter, Marion, in all of his visions, while staying true to his grandfather’s inspiration as he continues to achieve his goals and build something meaningful.
View the collection at SantaBarbaraLighting.com or contact the team to schedule an in-person visit at the Meridian Studios office.
