Edison lamp as an important attribute of retro style

As you know, everything new is well forgotten old. So, one of the latest trends in lighting has become a refined retro style. It involves the use of recognizable design elements of fixtures invented 100-200 years ago. But designers do not just re-release old models, but rethink them, adding new features. Just like that Edison lamp became an important attribute of retro style.

Retro Lighting Features

Among the retro materials, the most dominating are metal (brass, chrome steel), glass, crystal. Plastic elements in retro models are a rarity. As for the color scheme, the so-called basic shades prevail here (white, black, brown, gray), as well as golden and bronze.
Designs of fixtures beat simple geometric shapes: oval, rectangle, cylinder. More complex designs typically consist of a combination of simple elements. Double or triple shades are a very common occurrence for retro style.

An unconditional trend is open wiring, for which wires and switches are used in a vintage style. Fashion should not go to the detriment of security, so all wires only seem to be “bare”, but in fact, they are protected by a metal-sheathed braid.

Use of light sources of warm and neutral spectra

As a rule, these are halogen or LED lamps, stylized as incandescent bulbs. They give warm and soft lighting that does not blind your eyes and creates a cozy, “home” atmosphere.
Of course, the updated retro style allows experimentation, so in some models, you can see both “cold” LED lamps and complex bizarre mixture of shades. But individual lighting elements are the absolute classic of the style. The most recognizable element, with which, in fact, began a new era of lighting, is the Edison lamp. It can be seen in many retro-models of the “new wave” both unchanged and in various interpretations.

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A New Look at Edison Lamp

Its appearance was a real revolution in the world of lighting. Edison lamp, created back in 1879, was the first light bulb in the world. It looked almost the same as modern incandescent lamps and consisted of the same elements: a metal base, a tungsten filament and a glass bulb filled with an inert gas.

In terms of durability, safety, and energy efficiency, incandescent lamps significantly lose to other light sources. But what they can’t take away is aesthetics. Incandescent bulbs look very interesting and spectacular, and designers use this quality to the fullest.

Edison’s modern lamps combine the look of their prototype with modern technology.

All of them have one thing in common – a transparent bulb, through which the filament is visible. But the shape of the bulb and the thread itself can be completely different.

Edison lamps are widely used in lighting design. They look great both as separate lamps in retro style and as elements of more complex structures. We made a mini-selection of the most interesting designs inspired by Edison lamp:

Brand Van Egmond

Lamp by Brand Van Egmond, model “Edison’s Tail”

The name of this model translates as “Edison’s tail.” For most people, this lamp resembles a tree branch, but the designer William Brand, known for his unconventional look at familiar forms, decided that it would be the tail. In any case, the model looks very pretty and even fabulous.

Ingo Maurer

The name “Edie’s Son” sounds like “Edison”, which perfectly reflects the specifics of the model and the nature of its creator. Ingo Maurer was as innovative in lighting design as Thomas Edison in science. This model is interesting not so much with a lamp hidden behind a shade of special synthetic material, but with its hologram, which appears on the fabric when the lamp is turned on.

Lasvit Molds

Lamp Lasvit, model Molds — Lamp by Lasvit, model “Molds”

Typically, designers experiment with the shape of the bulb, but the creators of this model took a different path: they played with the size of the bulb. At first glance at the Lasvit lamp, confusion arises: where, in fact, is the light source here? Moreover, the massive wooden base distracts attention from the main feature of this lamp. And even upon closer inspection, you can see a miniature Edison lamp enclosed inside a large transparent bulb. An interesting idea and great implementation.