Histoire d’une icône: thirty years of Tolomeo

“I designed the Tolomeo in 1986. Perhaps I tought to say that I invented it, as in point of fact the idea for a new mechanism came before the lamp was created.” Michele De Lucchi

This year the Tolomeo lamp, designed by Michele De Lucchi with Giancarlo Fassina for Artemide, has reached an important milestone; it celebrates its 30th anniversary. A design icon with dynamic shapes and domestic appearance, the Tolomeo is a reinterpretation of traditional spring lamps (the famous Naska Loris), but with an innovative technology and a contemporary design. The everlasting fascination of this object is expressed through pure and essential lines: a polished aluminium base includes the body of the lamp, with a spring balance system that allows endless positions, extremely easy to use.

In 1986, the designer Michele De Lucchi imagined a swing-arm lamp with a new mechanism, able to work by using incandescent bulbs. To do this, it was necessary to hide the wire and the spring inside the structure, an idea born watching the way fishermen use the line for fishing. The Compasso d’Oro, in 1989, signs the success of the Tolomeo, whose name, decided the day before its presentation at the Salone del Mobile, comes from the famous astronomer and greek mathematician.

Nowadays, Tolomeo is a piece of design, provided with a timeless modernity, symbol of Made in Italy, spread all over the world. A versatile lamp suitable for different environments, which evolved over time adopting new technologies and materials. Passing from incandescence to halogen, from fluorescence to LED, the Tolomeo has turned, taking several forms but keeping intact its recognisability.

The Tolomeo family of lamps includes a wide range of models: table, floor, wall and suspension lamps with various dimensions and finishes created to respond to any need, following the Task light concept, specific lamps for specific applications. The collections is so large that a whole factory is necessary to produce the Tolomeo lamps, realizing about half a million pieces in a year.

Michele De Lucchi has defined it as a philosophy of the product, rather than a lamp. Probably for its ability to transform itself:  each component can become an independent lamp.

Lightweight, solid, functional and with a modern design, the Tolomeo joins technology and domesticity. These features appear in all models, from the first table version to the colourful one with an abat-jour diffuser made of parchment paper or fabric, to the recent Tolomeo Maxi floor and Micro Gold lamps realized on the occasion of the 30th anniversary.

Also De Lucchi’s creation is destined to change again, like all the great icons, and who knows what it will become?

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