It is the year 2016: Karin Brobeil, Art Director at Kettnaker, discovers the ELOA brand lights at Maison&Objet. Brobeil is looking for new lighting concepts for the atmospheric staging of Kettnaker furniture. The amorphous hand-blown lights seem to float in the air like soap bubbles, adding a colorful atmosphere to their surroundings. "I was immediately taken with the lights' aesthetics, which are so pure and enchanting - Simone has a flair for honest and almost archaic design," Brobeil explains of her first impression. "Like us, she designs with her heart and a very strong connection to materials. She disenchants the material glass with wonderful light effects - poetic, subtle, touching." Since that first encounter, the partnership between Kettnaker and ELOA Unique Lights, a label founded in 2015, has continued to evolve. In the process, the intensive discussions between ELOA founder Simone Lüling and Karin Brobeil have produced some extraordinary lighting concepts. For these, the Swiss-born designer draws on a wealth of experience. She studied Industrial Design at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Zurich and completed her first professional station with star designer Jasper Morrison in England. As a consultant for private and public interior design projects, she trained the change of perspective: "Every customer wants a distinctive lighting concept that sets the scene for his or her interior."
Lighting concept for the 150th anniversary: The "Starglow" luminaire enchants trade fair visitors
The partnership will reach its preliminary climax in January 2020 at the imm cologne furniture fair in Cologne. The "Starglow" luminaire, developed especially for Kettnaker, presents a unique homage to the 150th anniversary with 150 small symbolic glass lights. Its name is inspired by the numerous shimmering and glittering small luminous spheres, reminiscent of a starry sky. The subtle gradations of color variations create a unique play of colors. The pendant lamp will be awarded the ICONIC AWARDS Innovative Interior by the German Design Council in 2021. The jury honors the special aesthetics of the light: "Shimmering like twinkling stars, Starglow combines ELOA's smallest pendant lights into a cloud full of reflections."
Creating atmosphere and defining spaces with light: The luminaire design from ELOA
In Simone Lüling's own words, the production of the hand-blown glass lamps is done "by a guild that is threatened with extinction." The historically deeply rooted craft technique of glassblowing gives the pendant, floor and floor lamps of the ELOA brand their extraordinary curvatures. "In its free form, each ELOA lamp is a signature piece," explains Simone Lüling. The unique pieces are based on a design vision that only takes on its final form in the development process. "The temperature of the fire and the art of the glassblower shape the design. The most beautiful coincidences always arise in the creation process," emphasizes Simone Lüling. The special color particles also lend iridescent, shimmering effects for vivid lighting concepts. For Lüling, the various color combinations and variations are like music with which a room is staged. Depending on the order situation, the studio in Berlin's district Oberschöneweide creates luminaires with a very different narrative signature that correspond as if tailor-made to the customer's wishes.
Roots in craftsmanship: lighting concepts for a modern furniture design
Roots in craftsmanship: lighting concepts for a modern furniture design."The lightness of the installations, the amorphous in the design and the radiance of the color compositions are a wonderful contrast to our straightforward, pure and modern furniture collection," emphasizes Karin Brobeil. Is it opposites that attract here? ELOA and Kettnaker are united by the creative spirit with an old soul. In times of a revived appreciation for manufactory work and sustainable materials, the inspired handling of traditions is receiving more attention than ever. As a shooting star among lighting labels, ELOA knows how to give a poetic, modern shape to the ancestral expertise of Bohemian master glassblowers. So it is not surprising that in the dialogue with the traditional company Kettnaker great creative potential comes to light, which provides both partners with new impulses again and again. In its unflinchingly modern design language, Kettnaker develops furnishing solutions that can be staged in a particularly atmospheric way with ELOA's atmospheric lighting accents - at trade fair stands, photo shoots and in showrooms. In this way, Kettnaker and ELOA pay special tribute to the centuries-old craft of carpenters and glassblowers in each of their joint presentations. Karin Brobeil and Simone Lüling will continue their dialogue in 2021.