DesignCode

DesignCode makes colorful light fixtures and screen systems. I love the Flamp Noir - a box containing the silhouette of the iconic lamp.

Sarah Van Gameren

I've seen Sarah Van Gameren's work quite a bit over the past few months without knowing that it was hers. I finally came across her Family Tree necklace on Pan-Dan and had to check her website out, which is when I made the connection between Sarah and all these other great projects I've been admiring around the web. Her Family Tree project seeks to represent the lineage of a young client named Runa, and draws its inspiration from 'name-jewel' necklaces.

Some of the other projects I've been admiring: Burn Burn Burn, where Sarah has created a type of paint that can be burned to create a permanent mark on a surface, and the Big Dipper - wax chandeliers that will create an ephemeral, changing light fixture.

PS. Thanks to Desire to Inspire and MSNBC's Clicked for the blog mentions - and hi to all of you who are coming from there!

Yuriko Takahashi

I love the coverage of the Stockholm Furniture Fair over at Designboom. Yuriko Takahashi's work caught my eye - she has some very nice bent wood furniture, and some amazing light fixtures. The lights have shades made of wood veneer and cloth which are connected with zippers.

Via Designboom. Photos via Designboom.

IKEA sneak peak

IKEA sent us a sneak peak of some products to come this April - here are our favorites:

The KNUBBIG table lamp by Michiko Nakata (above), with floral graphics on clear and frosted glass spheres. We love the bright colors of the GUNVOR fabric by Anna Salander (bottom left) and the very sweet BARNSLIG cushion by Maria Vinka - a pillow for keeping your hands and feet warm. The design and colors of the cushion remind me of kids pajamas.

Kirsten Hassenfeld

Kirsten Hassenfeld is a Brooklyn-based artist who works with paper, creating super detailed, sculptural light objects. Her Dans la Lune exhibit just closed at Rice University's Rice Gallery, but I thought it was worth a mention here. Dans la Lune is a French idiom that references daydreaming, which is a great description of Kirsten's over-the-top sculptures of imagined opulence. From a distance her sculptures look like chains of gems and crystals, but as you get closer, detailed images emerge.

Lama Concept

Yvonne Laurysen of Lama is a Dutch designer focussed mainly on textiles. I came across her website today, and was really impressed by her felt rugs, each of which is created by cutting and assembling pressed industrial wool felt. The felt slices are randomly assembled, allowing for a natural pattern to emerge.

Lama makes furniture, too - check out the Loft light and the Sinus table and chair set.

Johanna Lindgren

2008! Can you believe it? I hope you all had a great holiday and new year and are rested up and ready for 2008!

Getting right back to it...Johanna Lindgren is a Swedish designer who works mainly with textiles (both making textile prints, and using textiles in innovative ways in her products). The P.O.C. light would be awesome in a commercial space somewhere as an alternative to a chandelier...Johanna has also experimented with wall textiles and screens (the light and top screen in collaboration with Helen Högberg). My favorite is the Slinga (bottom right). Made of industrial felt, it's a nice alternative to wallpaper or bare walls!

Hung Ming Chen

Hung Ming Chen is a young designer from Sweden with a few lovely products. I think the bird light is fantastic - it can be clipped on to an existing light bulb and instantly create some visual interest in a room. Also very clever was his trash can - simply two wooden pieces with built-in clips - slot them together and create an instant trash can. More work is available on his website, Hommin.

Via Style Files.

Bertjan Pot

I saw Bertjan Pot's Non-Random Light over at Style Files and had to post it here. I'm sure you're familiar with his Random Light, which he designed in 2002 for MOOOI. Both are made from epoxy drained fiberglass. Check out his website for other smart products, such as the lights made from halved fruits and vegetables. I'm not sure how the fruit was preserved (maybe resin?), but it sure looks cool!

Marieke Rongen

Marieke Rongen is a young Dutch designer who makes some gorgeous light fixtures! She plays with texture on the inside of the lamp shade, as well as with unconventional materials like concrete and copper.

The chair below is called Wear Memory and references your grandmother's doilies. It looks to me like the silhouette of the doily is burned into the chair, but I'm not sure from the image.



Via Bloesem.

Afroditi Krassa

There's not a lot of text (read: none!) on Afroditi Krassa's website, which leaves me to my own devices and wanting more information. Her products are sassy and beautiful. I would love to hang one of her "Bright Lights" (top) in my living room...

Form Us with Love

The chord is often the most unsightly part of a lamp. The Chord Lamp by the young Swedish firm, Form Us with Love, takes the chord and integrates it into the design. Use it with a funky bulb, and you have a beautiful fixture. Also very nice is the SwopIt, an acrylic side table that comes apart so that you can change the textile swatch sandwiched between the two acrylic pieces.

Boiler

Design firm Boiler has created some beautiful light fixtures that are inspired by plant-life, in both form and function. The fixture to the left (untitled) casts beautiful shadows through its flower-like symmetry. The Protea (right) mimics thermo tropic plants - the individual pieces of the lamp shade move away from the bulb when it's hot, and close in on the bulb as it cools down. The result is a very dynamic light fixture.

Tunto

Tunto/Mikko Kärkkäinen is a very impressive Finnish designer. It was hard for me to choose just a few products to showcase, but I did my best! What I like most about Tunto's products are the urban graphics and bright colors that permeate their collection of work.

The Hoover lamp is a gorgeous fixture, and I love how the base seems to be sitting on the floor with you. The packaging is awesome, too, with the lamp shade just peeking out over the side.

The M3 is a seat/storage unit, which is great for people like us who have tiny apartments and need all the storage we can get.

Below is the Vuokko table which I like for its simplicity and also for the splash of color on the underside. It's available in many pretty colors!



Via Design This Design That.

Tom Dixon - Trafalgar Square Great Light Giveaway

All of you lucky Londoners out there need to head over to Trafalgar Square this coming Wednesday at 5PM, as Tom Dixon is supposedly giving away 1,000 of his Blow lights on a first come first serve basis. Sounds pretty awesome! He's created a chandelier out of the Blow lights in front of the National Gallery. I don't really love the installation, but maybe it's nicer in person than it is in photo.

Benjamin Hubert

Came across Benjamin Hubert on Design*Sponge and Notcot.com and had to post about his Dandilight. I like this in a pendant version best.

Heinrich Fiedeler

Love the Drop fixture by Heinrich Fiedeler for Anta which looks like a glass-encased light bulb. Elegant and simple!

Guillaume Delvigne

The Lampe (72dpi, 144dpi, 300dpi) by Guillaume Delvigne for Industreal is a study in pixelation. The lamp comes in three versions, ranging from "high resolution" to "low resolution".

Via Style Files.

Yoyo Floor Lamp

The yoyo was one of my favorite toys as a child. I spent hours trying to make my yoyo do tricks. The Yoyo Floor Lamp does the greatest trick of all by solving all of your hard-to-light issues. It comes with a long, 16m cable, so you can light an area that is far away from an outlet. The Yoyo Floor Lamp was designed by Catarina von Martèrn and Lisa Landström and manufactured by Elmar Flötotto.

Seen over at Aquire.

Malin Lundmark

Here is a way for you to personalize your furniture. You can decorate your pendant lamp with your favorite necklace, or you can hang your necklace on a shelf that reinterprets "intarsia", an Italian building tradition where a decorative pattern is inlaid into a surface. Malin Lundmark's website doesn't seem to be working, so I unfortunately can't find much information on her. I'd love to know more about Malin's work, so if anyone has any leads, let me know!

Ample Sample

I don't remember where I first saw this, but Ample Sample was a brilliant contest where industry professionals were asked to upcycle the carpet samples they had sitting in their offices. Some beautiful products resulted. My favorites were the Mag "Daddy" Caddy by David Shor and The Loop Bench (though I would have covered the sides, and just exposed the tops of the carpet samples) by James Seaman. The light fixture above unfortunately doesn't get credited on the website, but I like it!

Tal Gur

I got an email this morning about an interesting exhibit of Tal Gur's work at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The artist's statement:

The exhibition space contains several objects which reflect a laborious production process: "Reading" tables, "Alata" light fixtures, "Mesh" chairs, and a "Bamboo" partition. The objects, with their entire range of materiality, sprawl, outline their course in the space, dissolve mass, allowing a glance through― through the object, the place, the space.

If you are in Tel Aviv, you can check out the exhibit from June 14 to September, 2007.

Thanks, Tal!

BCXSY

This is the coolest swing ever. It doubles as an outdoor light and would make you the most popular kid in the neighborhood. The Swing Lamp comes from BCXSY's Play! collection.


Via MocoLoco.

Kyouei Design

Innovative light fixtures from Kyouei Design - the Balloon Lamp is exactly what the name indicates - a lamp made from balloons and LEDs. The Honeycomb lamp is made from denguri paper. It seems like this honeycomb paper technique has jumped from bad party decorations to product design - think Molo Design's Soft line, these paper vases...Can anyone think of other products made in this way?

Emiliano Godoy

I like the rough and playful aesthetic of the Spot Jamming chairs by Emiliano Godoy and Alejandro Castro.

Emiliano's Sangre table was fabricated for a fundraising event held by Lacoste in Mexico City. Forty artists were invited to participate by producing pieces that were put up for auction. I love how the crocodile skin texture appears when the table is illuminated.

MIO

Here's some more felt for you. The Shroom Light by MIO is very nice looking, though it would be great if the cord weren't so visible. I like the fixture best when it is in the company of others.

Bodo Sperlein

Some more beautiful but unaffordable work from Bodo Sperlein.

Via inredningsbloggen.

ICFF - Lighting Finale

Finally, some old favorites (clockwise from top left): Holger Strøm's IQ light, Bocci, and dform.

ICFF - Tazana

Maybe I'm biased (I lived in Thailand for four years), but I really thought that the Thai companies produced some great work. My favorites include Tazana, who made the fixtures above. The ornate shades cast very beautiful shadows.

ICFF - Luzifer Lamps

Luzifer Lamps was one of my favorite booths at ICFF. Their fixtures are made with a wood veneer that is molded into gorgeous, sculptural forms. I love how the light shines through the wood to reveal its grain.

ICFF - La Murrina - Medusa Lamp

The Medusa by La Murrina, is a huge 55" diameter hanging fixture that really commands your attention in the room. Its waving glass tentacles reach out and illuminate the space from the suspended position. Given our liking of sea creatures, this fixture would be a perfect fit in our home, if it were only big enough to fit it.

ICFF - Le Klint - Under Cover

The Under Cover light from Le Klint is a great series of fixtures that lets you change the pattern of the interior shade whenever you want. The shell comes in acrylic or glass and the shade is made of plastic. There are 50+ shades available, even some from Marimekko. And the shades can overlap, layer on layer, to create new and more complex patterns. And I am sure you can print your own patterns at home. It is the ultimate home accent for those who have short design attention spans.

ICFF - Ango

I've seen Ango's work online numerous times, but this was the first time I got to see the fixtures in person, and Ango did not disappoint! The light to the left is made out of hundreds of empty silk cocoons, which have been gathered by Thai farmers. Equally beautiful is the hanging lamp to the right.

ICFF - RISD student work

I was impressed by some of the student work presented by the Department of Furniture Design at RISD in a collection called "Crystallized". Each student worked with Swarovski elements. My favorites included Annika Schmidt's Ice Branches chandelier, and Kallie Weinkle's Winged Chandelier.

ICFF - Lighting

Sean and I are dedicating the next few days to highlighting the best of this year's ICFF. There was some great work on display, especially in the lighting category. As an architect, finding good light fixtures can be a really difficult job (there just aren't that many!). I was really impressed with what I saw this weekend. Just an overview (clockwise from top left):

A brooding fixture from Josh Urso Design. Josh creates furniture and lighting fixtures with resin impregnated materials. The Puff light is available in sizes ranging from 9" to 10' in diameter.

Ridgley Studio Works creates lights using the gabion wall system. Interesting!

David Trubridge's Squirt and Twist lights.

Loved the REi Huggable pillow lights by Diana Lin. They are made of silicone rubber and are lit by LEDs.

A creative use of netting by Suhyun Hwang. The Lemon Tree and Orange Tree fixtures, each made with hand folded colored netting.

An old favorite of mine - Niche Modern. Always gorgeous fixtures.

Paul Isabella

Paul Isabella wrote to us about his "el credenza", which is both a piece of furniture and a light fixture. You move the lamp around the top of the credenza by inserting it into a grid of holes. Certain holes turn the lamp on, others turn it off. A memory game, of sorts! Paul is a furniture design major at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

BKLYN DESIGNS - Round Up

Last but not least from our BKLYN DESIGNS faves, check out this beautiful desk by Elucidesign and some funky lights from SSD. I think the "Childhood Memories" fixtures would look great in a kid's room.

There were two other exhibitors that I loved, but my pictures just don't do their work justice, so I will point you towards other bloggers who covered them:

Platform via Design*Sponge.
Brave Space via Inhabitat.