Inspired by a visit to Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens amusement park – where carousels, spaceships, and other spinning objects fill the air – the Cirque pendant has been an adventurous design from the start. Now, Swedish designer Clara von Zweigbergk’s dynamic form is exploring new territory in new hues. New for Spring 2018, Cirque, which currently comes in several colorful variations, will be available in a quintessentially Scandinavian palette of soft gray tones.
Introduced in 2016, Clara von Zweigbergk’s original Cirque pendant made a bold splash in three sizes and three cheerful color combinations. The design’s colorful stripes brought to life von Zweigbergk’s vision of spinning objects whose details blur into horizontal bands of color as they pick up speed. Now, von Zweigbergk and Louis Poulsen are unveiling another side of the multi-faceted pendant, opting for gray hues that further accentuate Cirque’s distinctive shape while highlighting the interplay of shadow and light on the pendant’s soft contours.
“In the gray version, the pendant becomes more about the shape,” says von Zweigbergk, who, together with Louis Poulsen, sought to create a visually calm companion to the original suite of Cirque pendants. Rasmus Markholt, Idea & Design Director at Louis Poulsen, adds: “While the gray tones give Cirque a more subtle expression, the visual impact of its sculptural form is enhanced, highlighting each contour. The pendant’s simple Scandinavian aesthetic also gives it a different kind of presence, making it more introspective and very inviting.”
More than just a light, Cirque is a visual experience
Cirque provides beautiful, soft, atmospheric lighting, with its unique form and matte white interior ensuring direct, downwardly directed light distribution. Von Zweigbergk also points out a special reflective effect, “When you hang the pendant over a surface, the light reflects back from that surface both into the surroundings and onto the lamp itself, resulting in yet another color combination on the lamp’s contours.” This interplay of light, paired with the sense that the pendant could be spinning mid-air, allude to von Zweigbergk’s original theme park inspiration.
While its matte, painted finish creates a soft look and feel, the pendant is in fact made of aluminum. Sturdy and easy to maintain, the pendant is ideal for kitchens (particularly above tables, bars, or islands), children’s bedrooms, entryways, and living and dining areas. The pendant can be hung individually or grouped in rows or clusters.
When Cirque is unlit, “you can gaze up into the lamp and imagine that you’re beneath a hot-air balloon,” says von Zweigbergk. Achieving a form that expands outward and narrows again toward the bottom required some innovative thinking, as did the process of precision-painting the exterior. “I couldn’t have been more fortunate than to work with the Louis Poulsen production team on my first lamp design,” says von Zweigbergk. “They had to come up with special inventions just to produce the spun aluminum lamp shape in one piece – and to paint the exterior in such a way that the color divisions met perfectly on the contoured surface.”
All three sizes – 6”, 8” and 15” diameters – will be available in the new, monochromatic style, inviting new decorating possibilities. Cirque features an E27 light fitting, which accommodates all of the LED light sources currently available and allows complete freedom in choosing the one that brings the best color rendering and light temperature to a given space.
The gray Cirque pendants will be available in stores.
Clara von Zweigbergk was born in Stockholm, Sweden and studied graphic design and illustration at Beckmans School of Design in Stockholm and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, USA. After five years as a founder and partner in Rivieran, a Stockholm-based multi-disciplinary design studio, and four years as a senior graphic designer at Lissoni Associati in Milan, she opened her own studio in Stockholm. Here, she works with graphics and design using paper, color, typography, and form. Her projects include visual identities, photo art direction, and a growing series of products for companies like Hay and Louis Poulsen.
Von Zweigbergk’s work has received international recognition, winning a number of design awards, including the Bruno Mathsson Award in 2016, the RUM Designer of the Year Award in 2016, and the Wallpaper Design Award in 2012.
About Louis Poulsen
Founded in 1874, the Danish lighting manufacturer Louis Poulsen creates products that encompass the duality of design and light. Every detail in the design has a purpose. Every design starts and ends with light. Louis Poulsen offers a range of lighting aimed at the commercial and domestic lighting markets, with lights and solutions for both indoor and outdoor applications. In close partnership with designers and architects like Poul Henningsen, Arne Jacobsen, Verner Panton, Øivind Slaatto, Alfred Homann, Oki Sato and GamFratesi, Louis Poulsen has established itself as one of the key suppliers of architectural and decorative lighting and has a global presence with dedicated showrooms in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Miami, Oslo, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Dusseldorf.
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Press release, January 2018