The latest movie from a series of interviews we filmed for the Design Museum Collection App for iPad features Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic talking about some of the iconic lights in their collection. Download the app free from the app store here.
In the movie Sudjic talks about the Anglepoise desk lamp, low-energy light bulb the Plumen 001 and Jack, a combined light and seat.
Here are some excerpts from the app:
Herbert Terry & Sons Anglepoise (above)
The Anglepoise lamp was designed by George Carwardine in 1934, an engineer who specialised in vehicle suspension systems. His experiments with springs led him to a new type of pre-tensioned spring which could be moved in any direction but remain rigid when held in position. Carwardine used the spring to develop an articulated lamp for use in industrial applications. Carwardine licensed the production to Herbert Terry & Sons, a UK family company who specialised in springs. Charles Terry, Herbert’s eldest son, was determined to expand the business. He saw the opportunity to diversify by applying Terry’s expertise in springs to new products and developed a modified lamp that was marketed as a domestic model, the Anglepoise 1227. The influence of Carwardine’s design can be seen in every ‘task light’ that has followed. Even after modern technologies engendered radical new forms of lighting, today’s desk lamps still pay a debt to the Anglepoise.
Jack (above)
Fulfilling a dual function as a light and a seat, the Jack light was developed by the British furniture and product designer Tom Dixon who also put it into production in 1996 through his manufacturing company Eurolounge. Frustrated by the difficulty of finding UK manufacturers willing to put his work and that of other London-based designers into production, he set up his own manufacturing company Eurolounge in 1996.
Plumen 001 (above)
Designed by Samuel Wilkinson and Hulger in 2011, Plumen is poles apart from low- energy light bulbs as we know them. Rather than hiding the unappealing compact fluorescent light behind boring utility, Plumen 001 is designed as an object the owner would want to show off. The glass tubes take an irregular, yet harmonious, form, the two organic shapes mirror one another to create symmetry, and the silhouette changes from every perspective. The name derives from a bird’s decorative ‘plume’ feathers, designed to attract attention, and the word for a unit of light, ‘lumen’. The bulb uses 80 percent less energy and lasts eight times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs and works just like any low-energy bulb. Sold as a design object rather than a commodity, premium materials and processes are used, delivering the best possible quality of light.