We love sharing the details behind the design icons at urbnnest.com. Stories are a huge part of the products we sell. It gives them so much more depth and character, and gives customers like you a real connection to the pieces you buy.
We regularly try and source some of the best quality, most iconic mid century designs possible.
HOLD ON...WTF IS THIS ARTICLE ABOUT?
We're not kidding. All of these artists have something in common with our vintage 1980s postmodern uplighters.
What they all have in common is Thorn EMI. That name might not mean much to you. But back in the 80s, Thorn EMI was a huge company spanning everything from music, electronics, defence and even retail (a bit like what Virgin was).
It was formed after Thorn Electronics and EMI merged in the late 1970s. Thorn electronics manufactured things like lighting, hence why our lamps are adorned with Thorn EMI markings.
You've probably heard of EMI if you're a music fan - that's because they were a huge record label before their takeover by Sony in 2012. They still own the rights to many well known pre-2012 songs from huge artists. So for a time there was a huge conglomerate business, both making super cool industrial lighting as well as marketing and distributing mainstream music. Bizarre!
Thorn EMI existed essentially as long as the Tory
government did (not sure that there's a link there, just coincidence..) until it was re-broken up into two segments in 1996.
Thorn Lighting still exists today, and still makes industrial spec lighting for commercial settings.
RIGHT. BACK TO THE 1980s LIGHTING!
So think 1980s. The end of modernism, the start of postmodernism. Curves are back, kind of combining simplicity with space age of the 60s. Blacks, whites and bold colour pops. Memphis style.
While Thorn's lighting is commercial spec, their customers clearly wanted modern, up to date designs. Our uplighters were originally from a school, where you can imagine them lining corridors.
If th look slightly oversized, it's because they're massive. We're not exaggerating - 6ft (1.8m) in height, they're not designed to illuminate the room. Instead, they're meant to provide some upward lighting, or atmosphere as we'd think of today.
Originally likely to have been a safety feature, a kind of night light to deter intruders and make passages feel safer, nowadays we can imagine them providing subtle warm vibe to the corner of a room or alcove. No longer will you have to put the "big light" on!
These have clearly been designed with some thought, rather than just built to lowest possible cost. Our favourite feature is the grooves down the "stem", which feel very Art Deco and give them some additional vertical emphasis, making them feel even taller! We also like the colour, which is deliberately off-white. We think this makes them easier to style. They have neat little switches under the bulkhead, picked out in an orange which glows when turned on. Industrial chic.
I'M TEMPTED, BUT HOW COULD I STYLE THEM?
What do you do with massive 1980s lighting?
We're not gonna lie, you need high ceilings for these bad boys.
An Edwardian property would be sufficient - basically anything with ceiling height exceeding 2.5 metres so that they remain in proportion with their surroundings and you get sufficient uplighting. Alternatively they'd be perfect in spaces with 2 storey heights.
Because they're a very neutral tone, with very chunky, simplistic design traits, they could probably fit in most interior styles which already have mid century or modern elements. Our wall colours at home are similar to this and we find that warm wood tones such as teak go really well. As you can see, natural materials like exposed brick also work well, as would pretty much any colour wall apart from bright white.
We could imagine them styled with wooden floors and a bohemian rug to help them settle into a more domestic setting.
MMM OK, WHERE CAN I BUY ONE?
They're available to buy at urbnnest.com for £180 each. Tap here to shop!
They have been PAT tested, ready for use.
WHERE CAN I BROWSE MORE MID CENTURY DESIGNS LIKE THIS?
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