Kartell Big FL/Y pendant light, transparent, Ø 83 cm

Large FL/Y LED pendant light by Ferruccio Laviani, 83 cm in diameter

Ferruccio Laviani is a long-standing designer and art director at the Italian company Kartell, which manufactures lighting as well as household items and furniture. All of Kartell’s designs have one thing in common: they are made of plastic in all its forms and colours. This is also true of the lampshade of the FL/Y pendant light, a model that Laviani designed for the Italian company in 2002. This bulbous, round lampshade is neither a sphere nor a hemisphere, as the cross-section – and thus the light-emitting surface – lies slightly below the centre. This serves to focus the emitted light even more effectively and to enhance the lighting effect on the surface below.

Plastic in all its variations is the material from which the products of the Italian design house Kartell are made. Since the company was founded in 1949, Kartell’s designers have been exploring how to make the most of plastic and how best to shape and process it so that functionality and aesthetics harmonise perfectly. Well-known design pieces from the Milan-based company include the K 1340 children’s chair and the KS 1481 lemon squeezer. In the lighting range, for example, the Model 4006 by Achille and Piergiacomo Castiglioni from 1959 serves as the flagship product and is highly recognisable.