East London design brand Hulger has launched a second design for its award-winning Plumen low-energy lightbulbs.

The Plumen 002 produces a softer light than the original design that's more suited to ambient lighting.

Like the original Plumen design, which won Design of the Year when it launched three years ago, the new product is a compact fluorescent bulb that replaces the usual prongs and whirls of a standard energy efficient bulb with a sculptural shape that means it looks attractive in light fittings where the naked bulb is left on display.

Whereas the first Plumen bulb was created by drawing with looping tubes of glass, this new design involved shaping the form of the fluorescent tube itself.
Whereas the first Plumen bulb was created by drawing with looping tubes of glass, this new design involved shaping the form of the fluorescent tube itself.

The sculpted tube takes on the profile of a traditional light bulb from some angles but the form has been cut away and pierced to leave swooping curves, straight edges when viewed from the side and a oblong void in the middle.

"The geometry of the Plumen 002 creates interesting resonances in the square and oblong spaces they will usually inhabit," said Hulger founder, creative director and designer Nicolas Roope. "The effect is particularly strong when used in series and when played off against walls and surfaces."

The concept was to blow the glass tube like a bottle, which still maintaing the loop required for the technology to function. "This approach hadn’t been done in any mainstream bulbs before, but the team believed it was plausible," said the designers, who enlisted the help of Texan neon sculptor Tony Greer to advise on the different lighting effects and intensities that various shapes would achieve.

"We looked for the right balance between an integrated and disintegrated construction, between organic and geometric form, something that would present a certain dynamic while remaining gentle," said designer Bertrand Clerc.

"The work of modern sculptor Barbara Hepworth really helped us in creating an interesting relation between this hollow space and the surface of the outer body," he added. "The transfer between these two elements also establishes an elegant connection between the rather contemporary inner silhouette, and the more traditional appearance of the outer silhouette."

The new design is a 7W bulb giving off the equivalent of a 30W incandescent light source and the low brightness means it doesn't need shading.

The company has launched the Plumen 002 design on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter today in the hope that its community of supporters who rallied round the original design will help to put the new bulb into production.

They also hinted that an LED Plumen bulb could be on the way.

Hulger created its first series of sculptural low-energy bulb prototypes in 2007, coinciding with the phasing out of inefficient incandescent light bulbs and aiming to reinvent the ugly compact fluorescent lamps as a beautiful product.

The Plumen 001 bulb designed by Samuel Wilkinson was released in 2010 and hailed as the world's first low-energy designer light bulb, winning the Design of the Year award in 2011. It uses 80 percent less energy than a traditional bulb and lasts up to eight times longer.

A smaller version called the Baby Plumen was launched during the London Design Festival 2012.