The lighting designs we saw this year ran the gamut, from expensive and designey fixtures to better garage lighting to knockaround units that contractors can use to light crawlspaces. Here are our faves for 2021:

Fixtures

A modern design classic: Anu Moser’s pendant lamp for Louis Poulsen

Ruth Gerth’s Art Deco lamp has an unusual backstory

Image: Cooper-Hewitt. “Glow Table Lamp, 1931. Designed by Ruth Gerth (American, 1897-1952). Chrome-plated metal, molded Bakelite [knob].”

Image: Cooper-Hewitt. “Glow Table Lamp, 1931. Designed by Ruth Gerth (American, 1897-1952). Chrome-plated metal, molded Bakelite [knob].”

Nao Tamura’s Turn Lamps in brass, aluminum or stainless steel

Seunghyeon Yoo’s conceptual lamp with a marble run off switch

Keillor MacLeod’s simple, elegant Show Lamp

Studio Flaer’s suspended yet angle-adjustable Piuma lighting fixture

Camille Blin’s Manually-Dimmable Gradient Lamps

Bambetel’s wooden lamps and more

Daniel Lopez’s Ledtube Mini and its siblings

Yesteryear Prop Store’s replicas of the neon signs from “Blade Runner”

Post Industrial Crafts’ “5D-Printed” lamps made from recycled water jugs

Product Design student work: The flexible-use Satellight Lamp

Smart design for garage lighting: One socket, five distributed lights, no wiring needed

The Incredibulb: A shatterproof, silicone LED light bulb

Another Reason to Switch to LED Bulbs: They Attract Less Bugs at Night

Image: Federico Bottos on Unsplash

Portable

Patricia Perez’s elegant, portable, wireless LED Mouro Lamp

Milwaukee’s innovative portable lighting box

Nebo’s funky, hinged Omni 2K Work Light

The Everglow Light Tube: A portable, inflatable light fixture for camping

A collapsible bucket/lantern with a removable magnetic LED light

Panther Vision’s “unround” flashlights won’t roll

Crowdfunding smash: the arc-shaped Bowio Book Light for even illumination