Design and marketing are inextricably linked. Good design, no matter how valuable, needs a proper advertising campaign in order to reach the public. Thus, well-done marketing works in perfect coherence with excellent design products. Two communicating worlds, linked by a continuous relationship of exchange and contamination that is renewed from era to era.
When talking about a beautiful table lamp today, it is impossible to unlink it from the visionary advertising campaigns that appear in magazines or the increasingly popular Instagram reels. And this applies to contemporary products, but it is a theme rooted in the past (starting with the “economic boom”) since the stratagem of making the customer desire not only the product but also all the meanings it carries.
Thus, since post-war times, what has tickled buyers of “collectables” are not only the primary needs related to the function of the product (the lamp that is supposed to make light) but also and especially all the “secondary,” apparent needs strategically associated with a social status.
There is no judgment in this exercise of ours, there is only a desire to report an overview of the most successful design-marketing combinations in the last decades of lighting. The result - we assure you - is a quick trip through time that will make you reminisce about the past and perhaps reconsider the present.
OZ, FontanaArte - 1981
Smoky setting and blurry colors. So 80s that it feels like you're on the set of a David Bowie movie.
TORNADO, DIL Illuminazione - 1986
Straight from the Facebook group “We, nostalgic for the 80s”
DOAL, Reggiani - 1987
All the melancholy of the late 80's in one photo: golden trim and soft light.
"Last Christmas" from the Wham plays in the distance.
Fluorescent tube, OSRAM - 1988
But what does the generation of led manufacturers know?
PIANETA LUCE, Caoduro - 1989
A testimony that in the midst of the “technological prodigies” era there were also producers who paid attention to natural light. Central perspective, technological tangles and glass domes: we are clearly in Blade Runner
ARA', TARAXACUM, BUTTERFLY e AETO, Flos - 1989/1990
A voice out of the chorus, minimalist and elegant since its early days. Flos in the 1980s
AURA, GIADA e ATENA, ArteLuce - 1989
Here Flos in a different guise. The late 1980s commercials are a triumph of geometric graphics, thresold effects, and primary colors.
NESTORE, Artemide - 1991
Pure and essential graphics, one might almost say "immortal". A happy combination like that between the color yellow and black to frame the silhouette of an immortal lamp
MEDEA, STILIO, THEO, BASKET, PHOTO, DELPHI D., Segno - 1991
It's the early 1990s but it still feels like we're in the elegant office of Gordon Gekko, an icon of late 80's speculative finance
TIZIO, Artemide - 1991
Another brand known for its whimsical elegance. Here Artemide presents one of its classics, combined as it often is with a fun and playful element. A colorful spinning top here represents the “world tour” that the lamp's appeal has taken and will continue to take.
LS765, AVMazzega - 1991
1990s, brands open up to the world, and so a pendant chandelier is allowed to travel around the world, from the New York apartment to the living room in Florence
ORIONE, Solzi Luce - 1991
These were the years of dichroic bulbs, flaunted and exhibited as a technical marvel. In this chandelier with a name that evokes a constellation, there is all the flavor of the typical waiting room of the 1990s
TANGO, ArteLuce - 1992
Bright and flashy finishes, collapsible components, halogen bulbs. all topped off with the usual 80s graphic layout
SUPERTECHNE, Reggiani - 1993
The era of recessed lamps is born. Nothing will ever be the same again.
LUMINATOR, Flos - 1994
True to the policy, Flos also invests in the 1990s on a few ingredients: an internationally renowned designer, a well-executed photo, and an extremely high-quality product. simple, right?
INDY, Reggiani - 2002
After the downlights, here is another breakthrough product: the projector.
REALL, Artemide - 2004
Elegant black and white, designer, lamp lit. Nothing else is needed to advertise an icon.
TACCIA, Flos - 2004
Dramatic light penetrating the room, the shadow of the foliage of a quiet garden, a design icon gently resting on a luxurious marble surface. The 00s paved the way for today's communicative minimalism. is it a lamp, a luxurious garment, or a prestigious watch? what does it matter.
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