The Party wall lamp series was designed by the Kranen / Gille studio in 2018. These lamps, which are intriguing to say the least, tell a family story. Five members with very different characters are presented: Coco, independent young woman; The Mayor, an authoritarian man and sure of himself; Ted and Glenn, their illegitimate twins; and Bert, the Mayor's brother. Their complex relationships, their personal histories, give birth to wall lamps taking up the personality traits of each one.
The Party wall lamps are made of molded ceramic. Each head has a built-in LED stage inside that gives life to each face when it is lit in the dark.
Materials ceramics & aluminium
Light source integrated LED. 2700K (warm light), 77 lumen, dimmable
Glenn - 17 x 10 x H22 cm
The Mayor - 17 x 10 x H22 cm
Glenn
Patriotic heart of the family. Glenn reacts to his turbulent youth by searching for clarity through ideology and order. Twin brother of Ted, Glenn is one of Coco’s sons and doesn’t know who his father is. Such a question mark is hard to bear, together with the hardship of having a mother who has to work to achieve financial security. Looking at his face it becomes clear that Glenn is the ‘good’ son, the idealist, the hard worker. He grows up pursuing patriotic ideologies and later joins the navy, in search of structure & meaning. Glenn is a man with a mission, searching for light above an ocean of darkness.
The Mayor
Prime member of the family. The Mayor thinks very highly of himself and literally looks at the world through his monocle. The favourite son of the Duke of Orthen and brother of Bert, The Mayor experiences the privileged upbringing of an overindulged child. His immense confidence is embodied in the lamp’s appearance, its natural authority. He likes to behave like an aristocrat and this attracts Coco to have a brief affair with him during her youth. Destiny strikes when she gives birth to twin sons Ted & Glenn, who The Mayor doesn’t acknowledge as his own… The Mayor is a character with a deeply fascinating and controversial personality.
Coco - 18 x 11 x H22 cm
Bert - 16 x 11 x H22 cm
Coco
The leading lady of a family. Coco is a self-made woman with a sharp mind, who learns to look after herself early on in life. After having a short affair with The Mayor and becoming pregnant with twin sons Ted & Glenn, she has to drop her studies and find a way to survive. Luckily she skilfully manages to become financially independent by owning several patents and turning social situations to her advantage. Her role model is beautiful, ingenious actress & inventor Hedy Lamarr, whose essence is englobed in the lamp’s graceful solidity.
Bert
A sombre member of the family.Bert is bright, full of potential but inevitably blinded and embittered by sheer jealousy. Son of the Duke of Orthen and black sheep of the family, Bert always comes second to his brother The Mayor and resents it. His bitter attitude towards life shines through his stern facial traits. To make things worse his brother seduces Coco, Bert’s secret love, who becomes pregnant with unacknowledged twin boys. Consumed by the jealousy for his brother he plots his revenge, a dream that may never come true. Bert is an intriguing character, a face that hides its feelings behind a life-long grudge.
Ted - 16 x 10 x H22 cm
Ted
The potential evil mastermind of the family. Ted’s reaction to his difficult youth is to follow the wrong path impulsively, head-first. Twin brother of Glenn, Ted is one of Coco’s sons. The absence of a father and the toughness of being brought up by an ever-plotting mother make him reckless. A real pity because he is extremely intelligent, with a passion for electronics and physics. Yet these qualities don’t stop him from getting constantly into trouble. His youth is characterized by a sequence of boarding schools, detention centres and prisons. Ted is the most exposed character, a face with no identifying traits to hide behind.
Kranen/Gille
"We're searching for some poetry amidst the tools of industry"
After graduating at Design Academy Eindhoven in 2004 both Kranen and Gille, who found recognition in each other’s work, initially went their own way. When the two met again in 2006 they started working on a project to be shown at 2007’s Salone Del Mobile in Milan “The Von Trapp Dining Room” a series of products inspired on Tiroler volkskunst. After this presentation Kranen/Gille came to life as a studio, working on follow up projects to be shown at fairs such as Design Miami and PAD London.
As time passed Kranen/Gille started working more and more with consumer brands, realising accessible products in order to spread their vision on aesthetics. Kranen/Gille products mostly start their existence as scrapheap sketches in order to keep an open eye on the product itself. Working in this way enables Kranen and Gille to design freely before products end up in CAD programs, a feature that we hope one can feel when looking at a Kranen/Gille product.