Oplight – Flos

The Oplight Wall Lamp, created by Jasper Morrison for Flos, is an exercise in simplicity; a wall lamp at the service of architecture and space. The embodiment of Super Normal (a recurring theme in Morrison’s work since early on in his career), Oplight looks like a musical note on a pentagram, or, as the designer describes it, ‘the most obvious, definitive shape a wall light could be.’

This ambitious minimalism deserved a little interview to better understand it (read below).

Light source W1 LED integrated 16W, 1290lm, 2700K, CRI90, TRIAC
Light source W2 LED integrated  25W, 2000lm, 2700K, CRI90, TRIAC

interview

– How did you come to define the concept of Super Normal? How would you describe it?

JASPER MORRISON: I had been wondering why anonymously designed objects were often superior to named designers’ products, and I came to the conclusion it had something to do with loading a design with too much creative ego. I noticed a stool designed by Naoto Fukasawa for Magis at the Milan Fair and it caught my eye. I was designing some cutlery for Muji around that time and looking for a similarly discrete design presence. I was explaining all this to Okutani san, a Muji employee and who commented ‘Ah, Super Normal!’ 

– Where do you find ideas for your work?

JASPER MORRISON: Ideally they just emerge, sometimes it’s more difficult and the design is usually less good. You might say the less I have to do with the project the better it is.

– When you design an object, a piece of furniture or a lamp, how do you know when your design is complete?

JASPER MORRISON: It kind of just tells me it’s complete when I can’t think of anything that looks unnatural or awkward about it, when all the proportions are as good as they can be and the object has an aura of being complete.

– What is your approach to designing lighting?

JASPER MORRISON: I wouldn’t say I have a particular approach, at least nothing different to the way I design anything else. I am open to opportunities, so when asked to design a wall light I start thinking about all the wall lights I’ve seen and which ones worked the best and what the new technology can bring to the design and what shapes would be most suitable and it starts to take form in my mind as a general concept. Then there’s a lot of work after that to draw it up in 3d and find out what shape the lighting unit can be and how to send the light out away from the wall.

– Your latest piece for Flos is Oplight, a wall-mounted uplighter. What are its most distinctive design features? And what did you want to achieve with the design of Oplight?

JASPER MORRISON: The shape of the head is probably the most noticeable feature. It ‘s 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 LED’s which are covered with a clear but ridged panel which deflects the light out at an angle away from the wall. We’ve chosen four finishes which fit as many types of different architectural atmospheres as possible.

Jasper Morrison