Launched by Muuto, the Set Table Lamp by Toronto-based designer Jamie Wolfond is an experiment to create a new way of relatably interacting with light. The idea, which spawned the luminaire, came about in 2019 when Wolfond met a vendor who excelled at machining aluminum. He began to ask himself how the screw, a tool for adjustment, might be used unconventionally when the idea struck.
“I think you need recognizable elements to communicate with people the same way that if you’re speaking a language to someone, you need words that they understand. Good designs are more of a question than an answer. Hopefully this one is too,” Wolfond says.
“The way I work is experimental and empirical. It is something I call ‘backward design,’ meaning that we start at the end. We experiment with a process or detail until we find an application that allows us to make something useful or culturally meaningful,” Wolfond adds.
The Set Table Lamp follows the lead of the screw’s threaded design, intuitively telling the user how it functions, with a shade height that’s easily adjustable by rotation. This seemingly simple, tactile motion then allows us to create our own sense of personal space by adjusting the area lit up. Upward-facing light bounces off the shade to create a bright, but not too bright, no-glare illumination that’s also dimmable.
Wolfond isn’t interested in repeatedly solving the same problem, but rather in choosing to prove that functionality and utility are the same through his designs. The Set Table Lamp is familiar but special in its own way, something Wolfond looks to add to all of his work. “It is really important to me that people find a way to interact with it. I hope that people can form habits around it, discovering the many interesting ways of using the light,” he shares.
To learn more about the Set Table Lamp, visit muuto.com.
