Designers often enjoy creating products that move beyond their function, transforming them into decorations, sculptures, playful items, or optical illusions. Some lamps feature aesthetics and shapes far removed from the typical concept of a lighting fixture. Here are four products of this type recently presented by brands such as Contardi, Seletti, Masiero, and Karman.
Baggy, Crumpled Paper or Lamp?
Baggy, designed by Paola Navone – OTTO Studio for Contardi, is a collection of lamps with an informal and unusual appearance. At first glance, these products look like crumpled paper tubes held together by a soft textile cord. However, the structure is rigid, made of satin-finished polycarbonate, and the irregular look reflects the brand’s archi-decorative style. Available in various versions and composed of single modules, each lamp features a cord that connects the table and floor variants and supports the product in the suspension version. The light source is a dimmable LED.
2. Window Lamp, the Window that Lights Up
Window Lamp, imagined by Marcantonio for Seletti, is a conceptual play between natural and artificial light, reversing the perception between inside and outside to create an unexpected illusion. The lamp is designed in the shape of a typical window in four variants, with a view of a blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds – one of the brand’s signature patterns. As the night falls, the window lights up thanks to a state-of-the-art LED placed in the frame. This eccentric yet poetic lamp brings the sky inside the house in an original way.
3. Visio, a Collection That Draws Portraits
Part of Masiero‘s Dimore 2023 range, Visio is the surrealist solution created by Nava + Arosio Studio that pays homage to the iconography and expressiveness of the face through geometric shapes that resemble its parts – eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The painted metal tubular structure is curved to generate shapes and create actual portraits. This vocabulary of elements adapts perfectly to any space with suspension, floor, or wall solutions. According to the item, the LED source is placed outside or inside the structure and always features a diffuser made of white opaline Murano triplex glass: an unusual and entertaining collection to illuminate one’s interior.
4. Maoo, the Fun Pop Lamp
The animal world also serves as inspiration: designed by Matteo Ugolini for Karman, Maoo is a wall and table lamp that looks like… a cat! The collection expansion introduces three new fluorescent and pop colours – turquoise, fuchsia, and orange – with a velvet-effect coating, adding to the existing white or black versions. The product consists of two elements: a frosted glass sphere with an internal LED light source, a mouse-shaped sticker, and a ceramic cat. Perfect for wall mounting or placing on horizontal surfaces, this product is part of the Karman Zoo, a range entirely inspired by the animal world.
