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At IMM Cologne this month, &Tradition and Dutch design studio Ontwerpduo showed off a lighting system inspired by climbing plants At IMM Cologne this month, Ontwerpduo showed off its Light Forest – now part of Danish brand &Tradition’s portfolio. Designer Tineke Beunders, who founded the Dutch studio with Nathan Wierink, told us about the system. Could you tell me a bit about Light Forest? How did the design develop and what will this collaboration with &Tradition mean? With Light Forest, we were inspired by that kind of plants that climb up walls and softly take over a space. The hoods of the lights represent flowers and the pipes are like branches. Like a climbing plant, Light Forest can grow everywhere. It can be complex, chaotic and big or small, geometrical and long – the system is flexible. The design was also inspired by our annoyance that electrical points in the ceiling are never at the spot you want your lights to be. There are lots of ugly solutions to this, but none of them satisfied us, so this was our response. A variety of parts connect together like Lego and can be adjusted to suit any space. We sold the system to different shops and projects. Then &Tradition came across it and this year adopted it as part of its collection. The collaboration is taking Light Forest to the next level, which it needed badly. We were getting many requests to produce Light Forests. Now, people can buy standardised versions and soon &Tradition will launch an app to develop a made-to-measure model, too. We will also continue making bigger and more complicated versions for individual projects.
What is your approach to design and how do your backgrounds influence how you work? Our designs are playful, decorative, fairytale-like, as well as functional. I like to fantasise about new functions without worrying too much about whether they are practical. Then Nathan sets to work and my ideas turn out to be feasible after all. It’s been like that since we studied together at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. Even before we graduated, we had a mission statement: to translate fairytale ideas into functional designs. We also take other people’s ideas and make them a reality.
Which of your designs are you most proud of? That’s always a hard question. Every design leads to the next thing. I am the most proud of the image of our collection – the photos, the atmosphere, the branding. What would be your dream commission or project? To design our own house. |
Words Debika Ray |
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