Space and Light

Design Alchemy ...........

“And the winner is …..‘Gravity’ !”.  Bafta and Oscar build up and being bombarded with images of the blackness of space and man’s tiny imprint on it, tumbling astronauts cut loose from mother ship’s apron strings and then, the distant memories of 2001 a Space Odyssey, set me to thinking of the quiet, majestic beauty of satellites in space.

Satellites orbiting round the earth, dancing a waltz against a celestial sky; these are the images that the extraordinary sculptural lights by Gareth Devonald Smith bring to the mind’s eye.  Suspended in orbit against the ceiling of a room or entry hall, these majestic lights transmit: dynamism, proportion, balance, intersecting planes and a revision of geometrical forms.

Gareth Devonald Smith Website: http://www.garethdevonaldsmith.co.uk/thecollection/

Close Encounters of the Scandinavian pendant lights kind …….

Reveal not only silhouettes that remind of Roswell but ingenious multi-shade configurations that reflect light in such a way that the dazzling glare from an electric bulb is effectively diffused. 
 
The iconic PH series lights designed by Poul Henningsen, the first in 1926, remain design classics.



Beautiful and functional – this design has endured and elements of it have been used by many other light designers.


 
Suspended hovering above a dining table it has been recorded that the benevolent downward directed light and ambient light emanating from the diffusers of such lights can even make Earthling after-dinner talk appear witty and entertaining …
 
Johanna