In the spotlight: Flos and Michael Anastassiades
Blurring the boundary between fine art and design, we take a closer look at designer Michael Anastassiades and three of his defining designs for lighting brand Flos.
Michael Anastassiades describes himself as a ‘creative’ - designing objects that blur the boundary between fine art and design. Living and working in London, his philosophy is to create eclectic, minimal designs full of vitality, individuality and a timeless appeal.
Today, we take a closer look at three of his defining designs for lighting brand Flos - the String lights, IC lights and Arrangements lights.
These designs were crafted to go far beyond aesthetics, challenging any issues that we may face with our lighting, and connecting to us on a personal level.
String: The electricity pylon
Conceptually simple yet bold in form, the String Lights feature a 120cm electrical wire, finished with either a cone or sphere that diffuse warm light from an LED at their centre. The thin electrical cord can be pegged to the wall or ceiling to create and alluring, graphical installation, reminiscent of a pencil line drawn in the air.
The concept behind the Cone and Sphere String Lights first came about when Michael sat gazing out of a train window, watching the poetic movements of the pylon wires as he travelled by. Intrigued by their near perfect parallelism, he quickly became inspired and began developing the String Lights – translating the essence of these pylons into a piece of interior architecture.
Not just drawing his inspiration from one place, Anastassiades was also intrigued by the use of string lights in Mediterranean village squares and how they’re used to divide and demarcate the space – almost announcing that ‘this is where the party is!’.
The String Lights demonstrate an incredibly strong relationship between lighting, space, and architecture. Their limitless flexibility allows you to customise your lighting just how you want, without compromising on quality. With this flexibility, you aren’t governed by where your electricity points are situated, which solves an age-old problem for many.
IC: The juggler
A bold balancing act that intrigues the eye, the IC collection encompasses a series of pendant lights, table lamps, floor lamps and wall lights. Each light features an opalescent glass sphere, magically balanced on a slanting baton. Apparently unstable, these spheres look as if they might slip away at any moment, like they were part of a juggler’s act.
Whilst watching a short film of a contact juggler rolling spheres from the palms of his hands across the length of his arms, Anastassiades originally failed to notice that the spheres were spinning. This was due to how perfectly still the spheres appeared at certain moments, like a camera capturing a moment of stillness within motion. This exact moment of mesmerising stillness was what Anastassiades wanted to capture, and thus the IC collection was born.
Arrangements: Jewel after jewel
Described by Flos as being halfway between a sculpture and a piece of industrial design, the Arrangements collection features a range of geometric lighting modules that can be mixed and matched depending on the user’s needs and inspiration. Whether circular, square, or simply a line, each led tube is painted black on the inner and features a frosted covering on the outside. This ensures a warm, diffused light from every installation.
Anastassiades took inspiration from the way jewellery is made when designing the Arrangements collection. “It’s no coincidence that the word ‘pendant has a double meaning, existing both as a piece of jewellery that hangs from a chain worn around the neck and a light designed to hang from the ceiling” says the designer.
What really makes the Arrangements unique is the flexibility the modular design offers. The system encourages people to customise their lighting, choosing a unique configuration which has been optimised for their space. What combination would you choose?
“Where has this guy been for so long?”
Equally intrigued by one another, Michael Anastassiades and Flos' former CEO Piero Gandini met for the first time during the 2011 Euroluce Fair. Six months later, they met for a short appointment during a taxi journey together (of merely 20 minutes!) that brought about the remarkable collaboration between Flos and Michael Anastassiades. “...he introduced me to his crazy sketchbook, there was actually the String Light concept... and we started.”
Anastassiades' designs always explore an interesting dialogue and encourage the observer to interact with them in a way that holds little difference to how we interact with art. In fact, he sees no differences between the two.
Shop the entire range for yourself on our designer page.
If you’d like further information on the String, IC or Arrangements collections or would like to find out more about Michael Anastassiades or Flos, then please email info@nest.co.uk, call 0114 243 3000 or catch us on Live Chat.
