The fact that lighting doesn’t always have to be traditional or boring, is proven by the following six extraordinary design lamps. These are perhaps not the most stylish or prettiest designs but they certainly are special. Find out what’s so special and unique about these lamp below.

Luceplan OnOff – Tilting it = switching it on/off

No ordinary on and off switch for the Luceplan OnOff lamp. Now you are probably asking yourself how the lamp should be turned on and off? Well, the Luceplan OnOff can be switched on and off by tilting it. The OnOff lamp has two sides which it can balance on, an on-side and an off-side.

It can be used on a table, on a bedside table or even on the floor. The OnOff is highly resistant to bumps and rough handling since it is made from soft thermoplastic. This plastic absorbs the shocks without any problems. The ideal lamp for your sometimes destructive kids? Without any doubt! Next to the fun way of on and off switching, and its shock resistance it can easily be found in the dark thanks to its little green light (when turned off).

Alberto Meda, Franco Raggi and Denis Santachiara are the three creative spirits behind this original lamp. The Luceplan OnOff already exists since 1988 and is already since 1994 present in the Design Collection of the Museum of Modern Arts in New York.

Kundalini Mirage – The table lamp is a lie

The Kundalini Mirage appears to show a floating table lamp when switched on. The lamp has the shape of a squeezed cylinder which is set upright. The front diffuser shows the hologram of the archetype table lamp. On the back the lamp emits a powerful light beam ideal for reading.

A lot of people might not like this lamp at all. But it certainly doesn’t look out of place in this list. Lorenzo Longo and Alessio Romano designed this lamp with their design studio De-signum Studio Lab. Their studio is relatively young, it was founded in 2006 in Milan. The Mirage is an excellent example of their constant experimentation with new materials and technologies.

This holographic lamp makes use of two 6 Watt T5 fluorescent lamps. It is 24,5 x 12,5 cm big and has a height of 28 cm. The Kundalini Mirage exists with a white, black or fuchsia finish.

Artemide Boalum – Connectable lighting snake

The Artemide Boalum gives a whole new meaning to the term flexible lighting. No other lamp will grant you the possibilities of the Boalum.

The Boalum is a luminous snake made from reinforced flexible white plastic. This is where the fun begins. The flexible plastic enables the Boalum to be folded in any possible shape. In addition it is possible to connect up to four different Boalum snakes with each other to obtain the ultimate “anaconda-lamp”. One Boalum snake is about 2m long so if you do the math correctly, you can achieve a length of maximum 8m. Go ahead and design your own unique shape, without strangling yourself of course.

Besides being flexible the Boalum is versatile as well. It can serve as a table, floor and wall light. The inventor of this snaky lamp are the Italian Gianfranco Frattini and Livio Castiglioni.

Dark Son Of Eddy – Crazy variant on Thomas Edison’s invention

No, we are not talking about Eddy Merckx or Eddie Murphy… Son Of Eddy refers to the one and only inventor of the incandescent lamp Thomas Edison. The Son Of Eddy is a humorous “parody” on and at the same time a tribute to the traditional pear shaped lamp of the ingenious American inventor. Davy Grosemans managed to add a playful and fresh touch to the old incandescent lamp which is more and more being set aside for other more efficient light sources.

It’s immediately obvious what’s so special about the Son Of Eddy. The pear shaped incandescent lamp seems to be installed incorrectly into the fitting, however it does emit light because the upside down hanging pear shaped “incandescent lamp” is not the real light source. The actual light source is located within. A small max. 40W G9 halogen lamp is responsible for the light of the Son Of Eddy. This amusing concept lamp is available in white and black.

Flos Mini Teca – Lamp in a box

Figuur 1: Flos Mini Teca Renaissance Cupola

Figuur 2: Flos Mini Teca Victorian Grandeur

The Mini Teca from Flos is another lamp that praises past times. Simply put, the Mini Teca is a lamp shade in a glass box which you find in museums as well. The encasing box however is not made from glass but from methacrylate.

You may have seen these lamp shades in your grandmother’s house before. By which we mean that they are quite antique. The Mini Teca offers two variants: the Mini Teca Victorian Grandeur and the Mini Teca Renaissance Cupola. The names already reveal where designer Ron Gilad got his inspiration from.

Moooi Clusterlamp - 

The Moooi Clusterlamp is probably far from the lamp you have in mind for your kitchen or living room…

The Clusterlamp is perhaps not the most pretty lamp from the Moooi range but it definitely is one of their most dared and experimental lamps. The Clusterlamp was designed in 2004 by Joel Degermark. Degermark is a Swedish designer who has his own design studio Electric Dreams together with Catharina Frankander since 2006.

After seeing the Moooi Clusterlamp it won’t surprise you that Degermark’s designs are always about playful exaggerations. The two designers from Electric Dreams love colorful, crazy, dark, things that are simply too much. Many of Degermark’s designs combine well-known objects that are brought together in an unusual way to create something new and playful. That’s why we believe that the Clusterlamp is the ideal business card for Degermark’s studio.

The Clusterlamp has room for five different lamps that can be chosen entirely freely. You can tweak this lamp yourself to acquire your own unique version. Combine small, big, round, long, candle shaped, colorful,… This unique lamp carries five sockets: 3 x E27 max. 60W, 1 x E14 max. 40W, 1 x E14 max. 15W. To fill up these sockets you can order one of the three different lamps sets (Set A, B and C), and you’re good to go!

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We hope you enjoyed this list of extraordinary lamps. Don’t let us in the dark about your thoughts. Share your thoughts with us. Have you come across other lamps that might fit in this list before?

Posted by Keren Fathi-Poor at 10 October, 2012

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