039must say that the first projects I completed
were for him. I also have great admiration
for Olafur Eliasson and his intellectual
experiments with light. I love the work of
Bob Wilson, and James Turrel fascinates
me, leaving me stunned without rhetoric.
Peter Greenaway is unsettling; yet, I can't
get him out of my mind. I also like Achille
Castiglioni for the naturalness with which he
approached design.”
While Truant draws inspiration from
numerous places and people, he confesses
that to ultimately succeed, to generate
emotive pieces of work that originate from
one's passions, “you have to be free and this
happened when I started to work for myself
and not for others.”
Truant’s background has not always
exclusively focused on lighting design, and
as such, he expands upon the complexities
of working with light coupled with interior
design in great detail. “When you draw a
light fixture, you must know the source and
the type of light that it emits and if you
want a particular result, this knowledge is
essential.”
He goes on to emphasise that while furniture
design is no easy feat, when compared
with lighting design, unless one is equipped
with knowledge about the variables of
light sources and how it behaves, “you risk
creating something purely cosmetic rather
than actual functional lighting design.”
This emphasis on the intangible and
ethereal that quality lighting design brings,
aside from aesthetics is further and avidly
pronounced by Truant.
“A light fixture must primarily produce
light that is suitable for the place in
which it is placed, and this is an essential
function. But that is not all. The light, if
well orchestrated, is pure magic. If we are
aware of this then each space within the
project must be a stage in which the user
must feel at ease and the protagonist of
the representation and light is the primary
element in order to obtain a great result.”
There is often a perception that there is
a dichotomy between architectural and
decorative lighting, but for Truant, the
perceived distinctive lines between the two
competing sectors is more blurred with this
being reflected in his designs.
“A client of mine who has a technical
lighting company, always tells me that he
is interested in my projects which, despite
their simplicity and above all functionality,
wish to express something else besides asource of illumination.”
Truant believes that there is a challenge
in creating products that aspire to be
something else, however, it is often in
vain. Despite this, “if the mix is right, the
project comes to life and becomes more
than a machine, it becomes an object
of affection. In the decorative sector,
often the fixture becomes a caricature of
something overflowing, arrogant, and the
object instead of being a dream becomes a
nightmare like the animated things imagined
by Granville.”
Aspiring to create a product that trenscends
functionality and achieves a status where it
becomes an “object of affection” is not just
an ideal or distant goal for Truant. This is
proven in his Dawn project, which received
recognition in the form of the Good Design
Award - Tokyo, the Good Design Award -
Chicago, and most recently the Red Dot
Award. The Dawn project was co-developed
with Marino Furlan and produced by Intra
Lighting based in Slovenia. Explaining the
project concept, Truant says: “The principle
is simple: a perimeter of light generated
from a hidden LED strip pours onto a dome
painted opaque white. The effect is a
gradient of light that makes the inside dome