The design of OK, one of the newest products launched by Flos Lamps is exemplary of how modern technology and innovation changes the way designers operate. Case in point: Flos’s decision to re-think their popular lamp, Parentesi, which was launched in 1972.
The Effects of Technology as Evidenced By the Evolution of Two Flos Lamps
Parentesi is one of Flos’s iconic lamps. It was launched more than four decades ago and continues to be popular. However, the design was dependent on a bare incandescent bulb that could be adjusted and/or slid up and down its ceiling-to-floor steel cable to provide a direct light source. Enter modern lighting designer, Konstantin Grcic.
Says Grcic, “Designing a lamp is no longer limited to working around a given bulb. Today, it means designing the actual bulb or light source…Would it be possible to rethink the Parentesi lamp once more and pass the Manzù-Castiglioni torch on to the future?”
With this question in mind, Grcic got to work, taking everything that was quintessential to the essence of Parentesi – flexibility, suspension and adjustability – and designed a contemporary version, named OK. The new lamp translates the old bulb into an ultra-flat LED surface that’s directable over 360-degrees.
Let the era of an old-new icon begin. You can learn more about Flos’s OK lamp through Casa Design.
