Occhio creates a new culture of light with latest luxurious luminaires
Kieron is a freelance writer and Digital Consultant who doesn't consider himself a design lover but a user of design - which to him is more than enough.
LinkedinUnveiled at Milan Design Week inside its first flagship store in the city, German manufacturer Occhio presented its highlights for fall.
When thinking about the ambience and atmosphere in a room, lighting can be one of the most fundamental elements. It’s an overlooked aspect of interior design that German manufacturer Occhio understands the importance of. That’s why in 1999, the brand’s founder Axel Meise started out with a revolutionary concept designed to enable people to become “the lighting designer of their lives”.
It’s a bold claim, which Meise set out to support with his modular system of luminaires with interchangeable reflector heads that could be combined in any number of ways to give users the ideal lighting solution for virtually any situation. Today, Occhio’s innovative product portfolio comprises four overarching luminaire systems, which meet the various lighting of different environments both residential and commercial.
Untypically for decorative lighting, this starts with the light and not the look of the luminaire, although that follows a close second. The brand’s philosophy is expressed through sleek aesthetics and state-of-the-art, user-friendly design realised with a focus on the essentials.
This includes the brand’s Mito collection, a series of gesture-controlled ring lights available in various models including floor standing, wall lights and mirror lamps. The characteristic design of Mito aura is sculptural and expressive thanks to its glare-free LED light source, which can be set at various temperatures.
“We distribute a few systems rather than many individual luminaires,” explains Meise. “This allows us to go deeper into every detail and focus on product quality, as well as to refine our product presentation and marketing.”
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Guided by the aforementioned approach, Occhio recently unveiled its fall collections including additions to the Mito collection. Edizione Lusso is a luxury edition of the iconic series available in new materials such as leather, solid marble and the brand’s new “black phantom” surface.
“With its brushed surface, black phantom fascinates with subtle elegance and skillfully refines current interior trends,” explains Occhio. “The new surface sets unique accents to an interior, with a luxurious shimmer between dark grey and dark brown.”
Like rose gold and bronze surfaces, phantom is created using a PVD (physical vapour deposition) vacuum metal deposition process. As a result, it has very high scratch and wear resistance qualities and is therefore easy to maintain.
This is combined with other materials to create new styles of Mito’s various models. “Vivo” combines green Guatemala marble, exquisite grey leather and the mystically iridescent surface phantom to create exquisite elegance while “Caldo” is characterised by a brown Emperador marble, fine brown leather and phantom black for the head.
Lastly, Curo combines the new expressive black phantom surface with black Marquina marble and non-slip black leather for a striking interplay of luxurious materials. In addition to Vivo, Caldo and Scuro, combinations with light surfaces such as matt white, matt gold, grey and white leather are also available, as well as the expressive interplay of rose gold.
The brand also opened its first flagship store on Corso Monforte in Milan during fuorisalone. Bringing to life the complete product range of 120-square-meters, it aims to highlight the innovative functions and application possibilities of Occhio.
“In Milan, we are setting a clear signal for light culture and inviting visitors to express their individuality through light. Our store is also to be seen as our lighting competence hub in the Southern European region,” said Meise. “We are very much looking forward to welcoming familiar faces and new visitors to our store.”
Curious to know more about what’s going on in the world of lighting design? Don’t miss Winners of the 2020 edition of the LIT Lighting Design Awards announced.
