Inspired by a combination of centuries-old wooden camera tripods and contemporary lighting design, Oliver Chambers, former Senior Design Engineer at Dyson, just unveiled the first product from his new company, Herston.
Ostensibly, Chambers’ Herston Desk Lamp looks like a very pretty, mid-century inspired desk lamp with a bit of contemporary tech flare — which it is. But as it turns out, this is rare — mid-century lamps are decidedly mid-century, in aesthetics and technology, and contemporary lamps are almost entirely thin, unwelcoming metal things. The Herston lamp employs warmer, homier materials (brass, wood, casted iron), still abides by the principles of the self-balancing, wildly adjustable desk lamps we’ve come to know and love and incorporates an energy-efficient LED bulb and conductive joints, which allow the lamp to remain wireless from base to bulb (there’s still a wire to plug into the wall).
According to Chambers, this mashup of technology, aesthetic and design was intentional, and an area he thinks to be underserved in interior decor. “We wanted to avoid the harsh, industrial feel that many metal desk lamps have so it would really sit well in homes and live work spaces,” he says.
The lamp rotates 360 degrees on its base, and is adjustable at three different spots (by triangular cast-iron levers, no less). The Herston Lamp — which will release in walnut with black detailing and oak with white detailing — launched on Kickstarter this week, and has already cleared its goal.
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