Lighting can completely fade into the background — or steal the spotlight, so to speak. Obviously the latter, these recent luminaires — from a recessed fixture to wall lamps — boast playful personality that enhances even the most buttoned-up of settings.
Anglepoise®: Giant 1227
Imagine a device that super-sizes any object you point it at. Now, picture directing it at the utilitarian task lamp, and you have the Giant 1227, which stands up to 106.3 inches high. Like the classic Anglepoise spring-arm desk lamp, this whimsical floor version has a flexible arm and head allowing easy positioning of the light. Giant 1227 is constructed of aluminum powder-coated in Alpine White, Cobalt Blue, Fresh Green, Slate Grey, Anthracite Grey, Jet Black, Signal Red, Raspberry Red, Citrus Yellow, Warm Beige, Duck Egg Blue, Pebble White and custom colors. Its socket accommodates the standard A-lamp (E26) bulb.
© Martin Gardner
Buzzi and Buzzi: Eggy
Recessed lighting gets playful in this simple, egg-shaped luminaire for plasterboard or brick ceilings. With a body composed of AirCoral, a proprietary material developed by the lighting manufacturer, Eggy has an aperture of about 60 by 80 millimeters and provides an asymmetric light beam with a 40-degree spread. The fixture takes LED lamping.
Foscarini: Lumiere
Is it alive? The alien-like Lumiere, originally created by Rodolfo Dordoni in 1990, has been reissued in a new mirror-metallic finish that gives it an even more otherworldly look. The base is die-cast aluminum, while the shade is hand-blown glass with a white interior for beautiful diffusion. The table lamp comes in two sizes — 10¼ inches in diameter by 17¾ inches high or 7-7/8 inches in diameter by 13¾ inches high — and takes G9-type T4 Bi-Pin halogen bulbs. Previous renditions in white, warm white, cherry and turquoise are also available.
Goula / Figuera: Lines and Dots
Barcelona-based Goula / Figuera translated a number of line-and-dot drawings it sketched on paper into whimsical, mobile-like fixtures of the same name. Folded and welded by local craftspeople, the powder-coated steel luminaires feature a rod running down the middle that holds a single LED light-source with a 60-degree beam spread. The line patterns are finished in matte black, while dots are painted in a selection of warm and cool hues.
ilsangisang: SOULeaf Series
Not your typical paper-shade light, the SOULeaf Series comprises three designs in which the leaf-inspired shades spring surprises. Silk-screen-printed patterns recreate subtle leaf veins on the FSC-certified paper shades to start; but, in complete darkness, those patterns glow in the dark. When switched on, each hanging lamp reveals a tiny creature inside (butterfly in the Gingko Leaf in Seoul, dragonfly in the Platanus Leaf in Paris and frog in the Elm Leaf in New York).
Innermost: YOYWall
Here’s a sconce with a twist. Resembling a simple, protruding tubular arm, when the LED luminaire is on, it projects its own virtual lampshade onto the wall. The aluminum and steel fixture is offered in white and measures 11 centimeters wide by 10 deep and 24.5 high. YOYWall makes its debut later this month at Maison et Objet in Paris.
