Tag: lighting

I’ve been an architecture and design journalist for more than two decades so when I come across lighting that has added depth, particularly literarily, I feature it here.

Though there is not true literary reference with Lumio as there is with Snow White Meets Settenani, this clever fixture is actually a book, A Book of Light to be specific. Given the product represents both a home décor angle and the physical form of a book, I could not help but highlight it on The Diary of an Imrpvateur.

Lumio, designed by Max Gunawan, uses LED technology to push the boundaries of design, as is noted by the guest curator of “Beautility,” a show that celebrates objects made from natural materials, Judy Bonzi: “In researching the show I was excited to discover a natural juxtaposition between gorgeous traditional objects that arrived at their design essence through centuries of anonymous refinement, and contemporary products that have been brilliantly conceived and executed for purposes that were previously unknown.” I featured many other brilliantly conceived lighting products here when I come across them, particularly if there is an angle that ties them to literature.

Three children painted in the Elizabethan style.

Books Garden Design Interior Design

Narratives That Illuminate Design

Narratives That Illuminate Design If you believe that design-centric coffee table books contain nothing more than visual surveys of portfolios, I am out to change…

Furniture Design Literature

An Unsung Hero of Modern Design

Saxon Henry October 12, 2015 American furniture manufacturers authenticity decorating history design industry leaders design narratives Groundbreakers High Point Market libraries lighting literary design encounters novelists set decoration

Resurrecting pivotal eras in design is irresistible to vanguards who understand that sometimes the best place to begin looking into the future is to take…

John, Jr., playfully tugs at one of the three strands of Jackie’s famous simulated pearl necklace

Fashion Furniture Design Historical Design

One Special Summer with Jackie O

Saxon Henry September 15, 2015 Atlanta British poets Chinoiserie decorating history design narratives Empire Style England Ernest Hemingway fine antiques Florence France grand residences Great Britain Henry VIII Italy lighting London Louis XV Louis XVI monarchs Napoleon New York City nobility Paris philosophers Regency Era Rococo Style Rome Royal Courtiers royal palaces Shakespeare Tudor Era Venice Washington DC

Hegel’s caveat “history teaches us nothing” may be relevant in cultural and philosophical realities but in the design world the statement is far from succinct.…

Cultural Explorations Furniture Design Nature Writing

The Tides In Our Veins

Saxon Henry June 15, 2015 American furniture manufacturers American poets Atlanta authenticity design narratives documentaries famous writers High Point Market libraries lighting literary design encounters poetry summer reading list The Literary Adventurer

The Tides in Our Veins One of the most evocative trips I can remember taking as a young woman was a four-day escapade to Carmel,…

Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen smoking cigarettes at Cranbrook.

Art Furniture Design Television Series

The End of an Era

Saxon Henry April 1, 2015 American furniture manufacturers American poets authenticity dead poets society design industry leaders famous writers High Point Market libraries lighting New York City poetry salonniere Yale University

Now I am quietly waiting for the catastrophe of my personality to seem beautiful again, and interesting, and modern. A voiceover of Don Draper reciting…

Settenani pendants by Karman Lighting illuminate a contrary Snow White.

Books Interior Design

Snow White Meets Settenani

Saxon Henry February 1, 2015 authenticity design industry leaders design narratives Italy lighting literary design encounters

“Oh, mirror, mirror on the wall, am I most beautiful of all?” Snow White’s mother, the envious Queen, would ask her looking glass each evening,…

A rendering of Michele De Lucchi's La Passeggiata

Architecture Books DesignLabs

Michele De Lucchi: A Conversation of Soul

Saxon Henry January 27, 2015 architectural storytelling authenticity design industry leaders Emotionality of Architecture keeping diaries lighting New York City philosophers

The Greek philosopher Plato likened thought to “a conversation of the soul with itself—a philosophical communication.” It isn’t unusual for me to attend thought-provoking events…