“Lighting is very important to a home,” says Calgary lamp designer Greg Ball. “Lighting is a great addition to any space. It not only provides light for the room but can be used as a sculptural feature to add character.”
Condo Living recently connected with Ball and other lamp designers and retailers about what’s fresh and exciting on the market.

The Hoodoo Lamp
In their Hoodoo Series designs, Greg Ball and Edmonton design partner Shoko César are now known for their fresh, wavy, Hoodoo Lamp. Reader’s Digest chose the lamp as one of Canada’s 30 best in its June issue. 
The design duo made only a few replicas of the lamp, sold some and clients around the world still continue to express interest. Now, the growing demand is leading the designers to produce more of the lamp and make it accessible to many.

“Nature seems to be a constant source of our inspiration,” says César. “The Hoodoo Lamp is inspired by the pinnacle-shaped formations found in the prairies of Drumheller, Alberta. It was part of the Series of products inspired by our camping trip in Drumheller.”

Recently, Ball and César installed a 12-foot Hoodoo chandelier light for a local restaurant in Calgary’s trendy Kensington district. Calgary-based Ball also has some very western-styled work coming out soon. “I am working on my own, designing some Calgary-focussed works which will include a lighted panel using Calgary Stampede rodeo imagery,” says the designer. César just completed a Hoodoo clock called Layers of Time for the MADE in the WEST exhibit.

Molo Softlight
One of the hottest floor lamps in western Canada is molo design’s softlight, which will be released in September. 

“(The line) softlight is a family of flexible honeycomb lighting elements designed to complement the shaping of intimate space, along with molo’s softwalls, softblocks and softseating,” explain Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen of molo design. “Individual softlights can be used alone or in clusters to create an intimate quality of space.”

Flexible and multi-functional, the molo soft product line, including the softlight, makes it ideal for condo living and its space challenges. Each design, like the softwall, can easily transform the condo living space again and again. “The elements of the soft collection have been designed to be used and re-used in a flexible and dynamic way, replacing the need for costly and inflexible alternatives for partitioning and arranging space,” say the molo designers.

Builtby Lamp
How about the Mack Daddy (in green and walnut) or Chump Change in (blue and white)? Or the Shoot the Breeze (in orange and rosewood) and Road Dog (in blue wenge)? Fresh, hip and creative, these are the names of builtby lamps available from Inhabit and its founders and designers Jennifer and Mike Tuttle.

The long, lean, columnar table lamps would be design savvy additions to many city condos. Shapes, colours and finishes can be arranged in a “mind-boggling number of possible designs.” The builtby lamps are made from 100 per cent recovered wood fibre with no-added formaldehyde and no-VOC paints or stains.

Besides builtby house designs that are ready to go, the exciting alternative option is the builtby custom builder console. Using this creative design tool, lamps are built by you by picking your style then adding body pieces and finishes.

“We really just act on our gut feeling about whether a product idea is right for the Inhabit brand and can we produce it and sell it for an affordable price,” explain the designing Tuttles.  “We design everything from scratch. We are not just private labelling existing designs or making pillows or bedding from someone’s fabrics.  These are our sketches, thoughts and ideas brought to life in the Inhabit line.” 

Lumens Light + Living
Lumens Light + Living website carries an impressive selection of European and American-designed lighting including the best-known international and contemporary lines. The company also showcases the work of studio glassmakers, artisan lamp-makers and small design studios not found elsewhere.

“The floor lamp selection at Lumens ranges from statuesque divas designed to provide uplighting to lanky forms with arms-akimbo designed for task lighting,” says the company. Lumens’ selection includes four types of floor lamps: general ambient, torchiere, reading and combo. General ambient lamps give overall lighting and torchiere lamps provide uplighting. The reading lamps utilize vision-enhancing lighting and combo lamps combine torchiere and reading functions.

Browse the Lumens website and you’ll see a diverse range of lamp designs at all price levels. For table lamps, they range from the Leaf LED Light by Herman Miller to the Mezzachimera Table Lamp by Artemide and Basket Table Lamp by Dform. In floor lamps, the selection includes the Fantasma Piccolo Floor Lamp by Flos, Jazz Floor Lamp by Vibia and the Cigar Bubble Floor Lamp by George Nelson.