U Table Lamp by Monica Pinto de Almeida is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 Silver A' Design Award in Lighting Products and Fixtures Design Competition Category.
SilverLighting· 2023
U Table Lamp
Client: Mokki Design
Silver A' Design Award Winner in Lighting Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #144976The Design
About U Table Lamp
The U table lamp blends art and design with its clean aesthetic in the shape of an inverse u made of frost and opalescent acrylic. It draws inspiration from the passions of the designer, her academic background and from artists who mastered color and light. Emphasizing its expressive element, color, it compels people to see colors in new ways combining emotions with forms and blending art and design. The lamp works with an e27 chrome lamp socket covered by the opalescent acrylic that works as a diffuser and creates a graphic effect.
The Recognition
About the Silver A' Design Award
U Table Lamp is a Silver A' Design Award winner, an extraordinarily prestigious recognition granted to top-of-the-line, gorgeous, and impressive designs. Silver winners are tremendously brilliant and exceedingly creative works that illustrate the outstanding expertise, talent, and acuity of their designers. U Table Lamp is expected to be a wonderful, showpiece work that is remarkably professional and profoundly innovative. This Silver A' Design Award-winning design is a highly notable, admired invention that benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. U Table Lamp is a vastly envied creation that evokes desires, introduces positive feelings, and sparks amazement and wonderment.
Where to Get It
Bespoke Lighting Design and Art Objects
We create custom lighting pieces and art objects that blend emotion with form. Our studio specializes in conceptual designs where color and light transform spaces, drawing from fine art traditions and architectural sensibility.
Discuss Your ProjectInterviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
As a designer, my main principle and inspiration behind the U table lamp was to blend art and design, with a focus on color and its emotional impact. I drew inspiration from artists such as Matisse and Josef Albers, as well as the visual effects of stained-glass windows. My goal was to create a lighting piece that compels people to see colors in new ways, using colors to interact with the human perception and to interact with the physicality of the spaces.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
My main focus in designing the U table lamp was to create a lighting piece that blends art and design, with a focus on color and its emotional impact. I wanted to achieve a balance between the lamp's expressive element, color, and its simple, original aesthetic, achieved through the use of rectangular shapes. Additionally, I aimed to explore the ways in which colors can be used to create different effects, moods, and relationships in spaces. Ultimately, I wanted to create a lamp that compels people to observe colors in different ways, adding character and appeal to any interior space. The lamp's clean aesthetic creates a unique atmosphere, changing perceptions of the environment through the change of shades caused by its own light.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
I would like to continue researching and developing the design to explore new color palettes, materials, and shapes that can be incorporated into future versions of the lamp. This could include experimenting with different sizes, finishes, and textures to create a more diverse and customizable range of lamps for different interior spaces and preferences.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- The U table lamp combines emotions with forms, placing emphasis on its expressive element, the color, creating a perfect blend of art and design. The lamp is formed by simple rectangular lines in the shape of an inverse u in frost colored acrylic for the larger body and opalescent acrylic for the smaller element, the light works inside with a chrome e27 socket lamp, a set that evokes graphic effects where translucent and diffusing light sets moods and adds depth to the visual environment.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- This lamp is made of two curved acrylics combined. The body is in frost colored acrylic, flamingo, yellow, and tangerine and more color studies are being made. The smaller acrylic is made in opal white and has the function of diffusing the light from the lamp in a harmonious way without causing glare. The lamp has an E27 light bulb socket embellished with a chrome cover socket. Dimensions Width 230mm X Depth 150mm X Height 350mm, 230 V,50Hz, textile electric cable with 2000 mm length.
- Tags
- U, table lamp, acrylic, color, architectural, design lamps, lighting, portuguese designer, lighting design, colorful, lightfixture
- Production Technology
- I started the design process with drawings, sketches and watercolors to develop the concept of the piece, then I developed a model to understand how light was going to be settled. Next was the study of color along with the chosen material, the acrylic, to perceive the effect of light through the different translucent acrylic sheets. Finally, I worked with 3d drawing programs to define the production scheme. In its production is used molded acrylic and laser engraving for the logo.
- Design Challenge
- My challenge in this piece was to translate my inspiration into a reinterpretation of simple lines, to stay true to my inspiration and create a lighting piece that compels people to observe colors in different ways. This challenge obliged me to explore the ways in which colors can be used and can create different effects, moods and relationships in spaces. Allied to this I also wanted to keep a simple and original aesthetic achieving the balance of the rectangular shapes of this design.
- Research
- My research was based on my inspiration for this piece, where I had to study some artists that mastered color such as Matisse, Josef Albers and Johannes Itten. Wishing to join color and light on their more emotional side, I researched the art of stained glass windows of the Middle Ages as well as the contemporary approach of this technique that can be admired in Gaudi-designed church, the Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, Spain.
- Inspiration
- The U table lamp was born from the idea of shaping color using my passions and academic background. My work with color was inspired by artists such as Matisse, Josef Albers and the color studies of Johannes Itten. I also found inspiration in the visual emotional effects created by ancient European stained-glass windows. With this design, I wanted to reinterpret my inspiration sources setting art and design in a broader perspective.
- Project Duration
- This design was conceived in 2019, developed with various observations of acrylics and different colors. I wanted to study the effect created by light and color until I achieved the balance and aesthetic I wanted for this piece. I worked with the support of local manufacturers as well as several studies at Mokki studio. Since 2021 this lamp has been on display at Codigo design gallery, Porto and has been exhibited several times at international and national fairs along with design associations.
- Operation Flow
- The U table lamp and its clean aesthetic creates a unique atmosphere, changes our perceptions of the environment due to the change of shades that caused by its own light. The color and the usualness of its original shapes creates relationships between the environment and the human beings. The piece can be used in any interior space, giving character, bringing focus of color and appeal to the interiors.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Tiago Costa, 2021.
Image #2: Photographer Tiago Costa, 2021.
Image #3: Photographer Tiago Costa, 2021.
Image #4: Photographer Tiago Costa, 2021.
Image #5: Photographer Tiago Costa, 2021.
Video credits: Art direction and Editing: Monica Pinto, 2023
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