appear bottomless, and the light diffuses
without dazzling.”
Following their success together, Furlan and
Truant have continued their collaborative
efforts and are now developing the
Dawn floor lamp, as well as a spiritual
continuation of previous collections, titled
Blackhole, which is also made by Intra
Lighting.
Intra Lighting's Futon light fixture is another
example of adoration made physical,
having too being awarded a Good Design
Award. Recreating a circular perimeter of
gradient light but with space inside the lamp
formed by a panel that absorbs sound, it
also features photometric curves and sound
absorptions certifications.
Working with fellow talented designers
allows for a new and inventive approach
to be generated, continuing with Truant’s
desire to produce original, practical yet
aesthetically pleasing fixtures. This too is
exemplified in the collaborative efforts
made with well know Italian lighting brand,
Fabbian, which has recently launched
Armilla. A blown glass and metal collection
whose production makes use of a new
process and sees three metal rings used to
support the lamp. These rings that surround
the sphere represent the trajectories of the
planets around the sun which, represented
by the light source, is located in the centre.
The ring system was developed to be
evocative of continuous light, which extends
into space as if there was a centrifugal force
originating from the fixture.
Another collection designed for Fabbian
is Olympic - featuring a unique aesthetic
emphasis focused on chaining light rings
together to create an apparent hierarchy of
light in space.
Truant tells darc in more profound terms,
that the intention for this piece was to
express oneself in a “grammar of light madeof circular monosyllables, to create Olympic
phrases in contemporary spaces.”
Outside of his work with Intra Lighting and
Fabbian, one of the most recent synergetic
endeavours undertaken by Truant is
with an illusive, young Italian / Chinese
entrepreneur whose appreciation for Italian
quality has melded harmoniously with
Truant's vision. Together, they have formed
‘Phanes’, a company that focuses on ‘Made
in Italy’ lighting projects. Named after the
primeval deity of procreation, the Phanes
collective lives up to its name's sake origins,
having already produced new life with
Levitas, a bubble of transparent glass that
manages to magically hold a sphere of white
light inside.
Truant hopes to follow in the footsteps of
Levitas with Novilunium, an “intriguing black
sphere emitting a magical beam of light.”
Also in waiting is Still Life, samples that
refer to the opaque coloured bottles used by
Morandi in his famous still lifes.
Having creative freedom such as this, as
opposed to being locked down in a stylistic
rut is the preferred discipline of Truant. He
says: “I believe style is in the method. The
result depends on the customer, the brand
to which it is addressed. On the one hand,
I like to propose a project in line with the
catalogue, but often I try to limit this, to
give the customer the chance of having a
fresh perspective and not just a standard
product camouflaged among their existing
lines.”
For Truant, designing a fixture is not always
about meeting the client’s requests; it is
a multi-tiered process, which has to take
into account the natural progression of the
lighting designer’s artistic vision.
“When I work on a project, I always think
about what can be told through its forms,
but the design and presentation are
accompanied by technological and designspecifications that need to be met too.”
With all of this to consider, Truant multi-
tasks when it comes to channelling his
creativity, often working on several levels
at once: “First come the ideas and their
development, then comes the narration
of the concept, its communication, but
in the sketches there is already the
technical solution, and as soon as we see
a constructive solution we think of the
name, the photo campaign, marketing
and typological development,” he says.
“There is a level of randomness where
all of these elements collide, where for
a brief moment, these factors crystallise
into a monad, where a solid design idea is
conceptualised... However, unless sketched
or noted down, will be lost.
“This is why it is crucial for me to see,
experience, explore and read about
different things - ideas grow from the tiniest
of details I'm exposed to, which might
already be held within, akin to Athena’s
birth from the head of Zeus.”
The nature of generating design is clearly
a multi-faceted one, and sometimes
further conflated by companies who do
not work in unison with designers. Truant
comments upon this notion, telling darc:
“The projects available to companies are
vast and the decision on how to proceed
is often uncertain. I prefer to receive an
outright ‘no’ rather than silence or being
left in suspense, which only serves to harm
the collaborative relationship being formed.
In comparison, I have been refused some
proposals, sometimes in quick succession of
one another, yet remained enthusiastic and
optimistic, with some of the designs going
on to win many awards.”
All marketable products exist within the
slipstreams of trends and this is no different
for lighting fixtures, however, not all
companies and designers follow them. While“Light is an impalpable material, closer to dreams than any other
material. We insist on studying it as a phenomenon, which is good -
but if we want to understand it and use it, we must dream it.”
- Lorenzo Truant
040 INTERVIEW