jasper morrison creates symmetry, simplicity, and functionality with flos for oplight

The essence of balance

Furniture and product designer Jasper Morrison thinks more things require balance. As he speaks with Flos, he likens balance to naturalness, the free-flowing grant to objects to form their shapes the way they want to. Morrison notes ‘the balance of noticeability and discretion; the balance of elements within an object, the balance a certain finish(es) has with an object, the balance of the atmospheric effect an object has on its surroundings; and the balance of cost with perceived value in an object.’ With his latest lighting design for Flos titled ‘Oplight,’ the rawness of balance and light finds solace in the aesthetic and design.

At a first glance, the wall light resembles a small, round-shaped mirror on the vanity table or a showerhead with hidden nozzles in a luxurious penthouse bathroom. As he continues the conversation with Flos, Morrison admits the shape may be the most noticeable feature of his design. ‘It is like an even more flattened outline of Glo-ball. Hopefully, it looks like the most obvious, definitive shape a wall light could be. The light source is a board of LEDs that are covered with a clear, but ridged panel that deflects the light out at an angle away from the wall,’ he shares.

images courtesy of Flos

Emitting light from above

The light ‘Oplight’ emits rises from the top part rather than the conventional light diffusion directed to the floor. Its shell is crafted from die-cast aluminum and its color consists of powder coating, two elements that make the wall light easy to recycle and have a less overall environmental impact since the coating requires no solvents.

The LED source of Oplight beams with a large amount of life and has a lifetime of more than 50,000 hours. ‘Should a malfunction occur, or later when more efficient light sources are available, the card can be replaced without having to discard the rest of the lamp, with significant savings in terms of resources,’ writes Paolo Brambilla, Flos’ design curator. ‘This is possible because the LED card is not glued to the heat sink as usual, and its replacement does not require sophisticated equipment. Rather, it can be done by a regular electrician without bringing the lamp to the shop for upgrading.’

During the design phase, Morrison thought of the environment the wall light would be placed, the atmosphere deemed as the heart of why his design would exist. For the designer, designs must confer a light and novel aura to the space they live in. ‘It sounds obvious but you’d be surprised how many products have a negative effect. Whether the light is on or off it needs to seem natural in the context of the space it’s in,’ he tells Flos.

furniture and product designer Jasper Morrison

Creating an atmosphere

For Oplight, he imagines his design inside an old country cottage for the small variant and in a high-ceilinged home for the larger one as well as in the corridor of an office. Breezing through the walkway in the evening with Oplight to escort the footsteps invoke a memory of a lighthouse guiding the ships and sailors safe to the shore.

While one may think of the ease bestowed on the design, Morrison admits facing challenges in creating the blueprint of the lighting. ‘As the physical presence of the design is only part of the quality of a lighting product and the other part is something intangible and quite unpredictable, it makes it very hard to focus on the end result, whereas while designing a chair the shape relates automatically to the performance of the product,’ he tells Flos. With ‘Oplight’, the obstacles appear uninvited through the simplicity and functionality of the design.

testing the Oplight