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Titan Lighting owner Kyle O'Hearn was recently featured in ValiantCEO, a business news publication, in an article examining why outdoor lighting has become a central part of modern residential design. The piece, written by Callum Turner and published August 5, 2026, looks at how homeowners' expectations for outdoor space have changed and what that shift means for the way lighting is planned and installed.
Being asked to weigh in on that conversation is worth pausing on. It says something about how Titan's approach to landscape lighting design is being recognized beyond its home market in Northeast Ohio.
The article opens with a broader observation: home improvement used to center on kitchens, bathrooms, and interior renovations, but that focus has expanded to include outdoor living areas that people use for gathering, relaxing, and entertaining throughout the year. The piece cites a study finding that 71% of homeowners upgraded outdoor areas specifically to improve their enjoyment of the space, framing exterior design as a growing priority rather than an afterthought.
O'Hearn's contribution to the piece centers on a few connected ideas:
Outdoor space is everyday living, not a special occasion. He describes a mindset shift among homeowners, who increasingly treat their yards and patios as extensions of daily life rather than areas reserved for holidays or parties.
Lighting as composition, not coverage. According to the article, O'Hearn views a well-lit property the way a designer views a scene — light, shadow, texture, and focal points working together, rather than fixtures simply pointed at whatever needs to be visible after dark. Trees, stonework, brick, and water features all play a role in that visual layering.
Design before fixture count. O'Hearn pushes back on a common assumption: that outdoor lighting is mainly a question of how many fixtures to install and where. As he put it in the piece, "people often think lighting is about adding fixtures wherever there's darkness." His view is that balance, scale, and how each element relates to the rest of the property should come first.
Permanent, programmable systems as a convenience shift. The article also points to the growing popularity of permanent architectural lighting — systems that stay discreet during the day and can be programmed for holidays, events, or everyday use, cutting down on the seasonal setup and teardown many homeowners are used to.
Where the category is headed. O'Hearn tells ValiantCEO he expects continued demand for lighting that uses less energy, needs less maintenance, integrates cleanly into a home's architecture, and runs through smart controls — alongside the practical role lighting plays in walkway, driveway, and entryway visibility.
A media feature is a different kind of credibility signal than a testimonial or an ad. When a business news outlet asks a company's owner to explain a trend rather than sell a service, it's implicitly treating that person's perspective as informed and worth sharing with readers who don't already know the company.
For Titan Lighting, that matters in a specific way. The ValiantCEO piece isn't about a project or a promotion — it's about how O'Hearn thinks about outdoor lighting as a discipline: composition, restraint, and long-term usability over simply adding more fixtures. That's a harder story to tell through marketing copy alone, and it's the kind of framing that tends to land better coming from a third party.
It's also a useful reference point for the people Titan works with regularly — landscapers, builders, and real estate professionals — who are often the ones fielding a homeowner's first questions about whether exterior lighting is worth the investment. The article's point about curb appeal and buyer perception speaks directly to that audience, even though it's a general industry observation rather than a claim about Titan's own project outcomes.
If you're weighing a lighting project of your own, the throughline from the ValiantCEO feature is worth keeping in mind: the goal isn't maximum brightness, it's a property that feels complete after dark. That applies whether you're looking at permanent, programmable lighting for holidays and everyday use, landscape lighting built around your home's architecture, or a lighting plan for a commercial property.
Titan Lighting's gallery shows how that design-first thinking plays out on real properties, and the team is available to talk through what a plan tailored to your home might look like; you can request a quote here.
One media placement doesn't change how a lighting project gets designed or installed. What it does is give an outside audience a reason to take a closer look — and for Titan Lighting, that's a chance to be judged on the same standard the ValiantCEO article lays out: not how many lights are on a property, but how the property feels once they're turned on.
Read the full feature on ValiantCEO: Why Outdoor Lighting Has Become Essential to Modern Residential Design
