The art of lighting
Michael Anastassiades travels an illuminating path to modern design
An opaque white globe glows just above and behind Michael Anastassiades as he leans back into a sleek modern chair at the Internum home furnishings store.
It’s the store’s lobby, but it feels more like a nice corner in someone’s living room, perfect for a conversation.
The Greek-born, London-based Anastassiades visited Houston recently as part of a seven-city North American tour to talk about and promote his collection for FLOS, the Italian lighting company known for its masterful contemporary and modern designs. His newest products, the Arrangements collection, will be available in February.
He took time during his visit to talk about his hard work, earning a living and the idea of lighting as jewelry.
Q: You studied civil engineering and then industrial design, yet your real passion has been designing things that are very artful. What drew you to lighting?
A: It’s probably me running away from engineering, but people say they see engineering in it. The more technical pieces like the mobile chandeliers (Arrangements) are more engineered pieces.
Q: You worked on your designs a long time before connecting with FLOS. How did it all happen?
A: For many years, I was frustrated by how the design world operates. You have to approach manufacturers or brands to invest in you, and what I faced as a young designer was that nobody wants to work with you unless you are established or unless you are famous.
After many years of knocking on doors … I spent years doing research, more conceptual work. It was more like art. I had an incredible response from this body of work, which I continue to develop.
In 2007, I decided to create my own brand and put together a collection of things that I had designed over previous years.
A lot of them happen to be lights, but some were tabletop and some were furniture. I got a lot of encouragement from people on the lighting.
Q: So what was your breakthrough?
A: During the research years, when I was developing this work and showing in museums, I certainly was not earning a living. I did short freelance jobs, but mostly I taught yoga, for 15 years. It was a way for me to keep my designs totally pure, without compromise.
Going back to the brand, when I launched with a handful of products, it made more sense to focus on lighting from that point on.
2011 was when we decided to work with FLOS. I had done things for other companies, like a lamp or something, one-offs. The first industrial manufacturing partnership came from FLOS, and the first products launched in 2013.
Q: Tell me about your newest collection.
A: FLOS launches new work every two years, and 2017 was another big year for me with FLOS. I launched Arrangements, lighting made of interlocking rings that people would link together themselves. It was a conscious departure for me. When I started with FLOS, I gave them designs I already had from launching my own brand. The globe balancing on the stick. Spheres being repeated over and over again. My lights always consist of spheres. All of a sudden, with the worldwide (distribution) that FLOS had, the whole world started following. I’m not claiming to have created the globe, it has been used many times before.
Q: But there are, obviously, copies of your work out there. Do you see it as creative theft or flattery?
A: The only thing you can do is become better and move on. It’s flattery, absolutely, and I always saw it in that sense. When people ask me how I feel about copies, I never get upset when someone is making money out of my ideas. What upsets me is that they never do it the way I do it. It’s like seeing the ugly side of yourself in the mirror. It’s the moment a project goes completely wrong and you say, “This is actually not nice.”
Q: Many interior designers describe lighting as the jewelry of a room or home. Is it a coincidence that you design both jewelry and
lighting?
A: Lighting is like jewelry. In my Arrangements collection, you have these different geometric shapes, the loop, a rhombus, a teardrop shape and a square one. You basically lock them together to create something like a chandelier. What’s nice is the ease with which you can actually do it. You open the link, loop the other piece in and close the link and hang it from a very special position, and it all lights up. You create all these possibilities. It’s elegant.
Q: You spoke to design students at an earlier stop on this tour. What advice do you give them?
A: That good ideas come from a fair amount of work. You can be a talented artist, but unless you practice and produce, (success is) not going to happen.
Q: You say that you create pieces with layers. Tell me about the layers.
A: One is the choice of material, the texture — whether it’s a reflective or matte surface. I use materials that look like what they are. I don’t use materials trying to be something else, like plastics that are metallicized to look like something else. I like honesty in use of materials. I also believe in familiarity of form. You get closer to the user by giving them something familiar. It’s not about reinventing a shape. A lot of designers want to shock people. They think they are the first ones to ever do something. I’m a big believer that nothing is new. Reinterpreting is all we can do as designers.
Q: How do you like to see your lighting used in homes and offices?
A: It’s interesting because when you give people something beyond a light fixture that they simply plug into a socket or simply hang it from a ceiling in a straightforward manner, there’s not much challenge there. The String Lights are unique in every sense, it is a sphere with an endless length of string. You stretch it over different walls and different patterns how you want it. In Arrangements, people link shapes together how they like them. When you give people a project like this, you expect them to contribute their interpretation of your product. You ask them to be creative with it.
Q: So it’s interactive?
A: Yes, it is. One of my first pieces was called an Antisocial Light that would only glow when there was absolute silence. (Laughs.) That’s interactive lighting for me. But you are expecting people to participate in the creative process and use your product. People send me pictures on Instagram and ask, “What do you think?” It’s very nice, even if it’s not something I would do with it. The moment you give them the opportunity, you let them do what they want.