The Front Design-Horse Lamp

The Font design studio was a design team from Switzerland that composed of a group of female industrial designers respectively are Sofia Lagerkvist, Charlotte von der Lancken, Anna Lindgren and Katja Svstrm (who has since left the group) with forwarding thinking were established in 2003. Their design style is like the name of their studio, has the front idea and focuses on product innovation, high-performance, and authenticity. Front is the most mature event in Australia, which carries out the activities guided by business and based on results. Demonstrate to partners’ ideologies that focus on solutions and ongoing innovation. Their studio around cleverly articulated ideas, an interesting twist on materials and an interest in the process of making things. (Package & Design).

Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren (Figure 1) mainly design the Horse Lamp (Figure 2) produced in Dutch company Moooi. There are three basic elements that are obviously integrated into this work, which they insist and advocate, including the combination of animal, computer and machine technology to Developed products with female aesthetic characteristics. They created the Animal collection in 2006 that use the amazing life-sized of the animal to make the form like a sculptural as the base and combined with the light representing the functionality to create stunning furniture, which will surely become a central feature for whichever space it is placed. (Lamp, R. 2019). Furthermore, the designer admits that the unusual designs were challenge and experiment for the front, while they know that someone would react strongly to the collection, both positive and negative. In addition, they are not sure the people would really like it or hate it because of religion or beliefs or social factors when the customer saw the light at first sight. (Hobson, B. 2019). When I first saw the Horse Lamp its unique shape also shocked me. I never thought about such a combination and wondered why the designer had such innovative ideas. This may be a weird combination for some people. The Horse Lamp appearance and structure look a lot different from the ordinary lamps that make the people have a new visual experience of this lamp. It attracts customers because of its interesting features, which brought a touch of nature in fairytale style to the people. Since the Front design is based on the real dimensions and is constructed using a variety of methods and material. The shape of the horse corpus consists of black polyester at the bottom, and the lampshade that is closed towards the top consists have PVC viscose and metal frame. (Connox, 2. 2019). It enough to weigh an adult, and the people sent the photos of riding lamp to Moooi and Front from around the world and they think it’s an amazing design that seems to have come to life.

In addition, what Front is facing is not only the reaction to the design but also some comment and query about the women designers, which is a common prejudice against female industrial designers in society. In many cases, women worked freelance from home or joined special workshops and studios, which provided work for them. That it was unacceptable for women to do furniture design or wrought-iron work and ‘architecture was considered an all-male province’. Embroidery, lace making, miniature- painting, dressmaking and so on were the ‘proper’ domains for women. (Bruce, M. Lewis, J. 1999. p.116).  However, women still have three major obstacles in industrial design. The first hurdle is qualifications, it is more difficult for women to finish their studies and get a good school degree. The second hurdle is getting the first job; the recruitment companies will think that women are not good at technology. The third is promotion and awards, even if women enter the job, she may miss work time because of pregnancy and not able to socialize. (Bruce, M. Lewis, J. 1999. p.115-116). These views are unfair to women. Nevertheless, the two designers of the Horse Lamp, their success completely overturned these evaluations. Sofia and Anna graduated from university in Stockholm; it tries to use new technologies to subversion the design experience and creative ideas to do business with the future through a changing landscape of priorities and influence. (FRONT, 2019). Their work philosophy is to overthrow all the conventional design patterns to find and explore new forms of expression so that the design is experimental and uncertainty, while many international furniture industry companies have recognized their views. 

They work as a group where all members are involved in the design process from initial discussions and ideas to the final product. In my opinion, it is precise because of this design and production process that every piece of the present design is full of magic. To show their interesting attitude towards the object and unexpected surprise. (Yatzer. 2019).

I agree that this is a successful work both in design and concept, but I still have the question is, how long will be accepted and appreciated about this creative and breakthrough style of design? In the future, the design of the exploration and experiments will one day fail?

In my opinion, the concept of Front’s combination is magical, it can bring people different visual feelings, while it not only demonstrates the new artistic expressions generated through continuous innovation but also proves that women can also have successful achievements in industrial design. Of course, the ideological progress of modern society more and more women designers were a renewed focus.

References:

FRONT. (2019). FRONT – Design. Products. Knowledge. [Online] Available at: https://www.front.design/ [Accessed 28 March. 2019].

Package & Design. “FRONT” Available at: http://www.doc88.com/p-9793455701158.html [Accessed 28 March. 2019].

Lamp, R. (2019). Replica Moooi Horse Floor Lamp. Lucretiashop.com.au. Available at: https://lucretiashop.com.au/replica-moooi-horse-floor-lamp.html [Accessed 30 March. 2019].

Hobson, B. (2019). Video: Front’s lifesize Horse Lamp for Moooi was an experiment. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/17/video-interview-front-lifesize-horse-lamp-animal-collection-moooi-experiment-movie/ [Accessed 30 March. 2019].

Connox, 2. (2019). Horse Lamp | Moooi | Shop. Connox.com. Available at: https://www.connox.com/categories/lighting/floor-lamps/moooi-horse-lamp.html [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019].

Yatzer. (2019). FRONT in Milan | Yatzer. Available at: https://www.yatzer.com/front-milan  [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019].

Bruce, M. Lewis, J. (1999). “Design studies”, Women designers – is there a gender trap? pp. 115-116.