Hasta La Ideas

In the Details is our weekly look at especially smart, innovative or unusual details of a new design.

The founders of London’s International design studio launched their company in 2010 with accessibility as the guiding principle. “We’re both put off by the luxury market,” says Robin Grasby, who believes that good design should be less exclusionary and more democratic.

International puts this philosophy into practice by developing modular systems engineered for standard fittings and fixtures. For Apollo, their first production piece, Grasby and his cofounder, Marc Bell, developed a series of slotted and solid aluminum lampshades in several colors. The variations will stack on a standard UK bayonet light socket in multiples up to four, allowing for nearly 750 possible combinations. Depending on the shapes, colors and perforations mixed and matched, the lamps will cast light in wide or narrow beams, in slotted staccatos or in warmer or more natural hues.

Four of the many possible Apollo lampshade combinations

When considering the outward appearance of their nested metal shades and the way they might manipulate light, International’s founders drew inspiration from Poul Henningsen’s 1958 Artichoke lamp. Their execution, however, needed to be more practical. International looked into supplying custom fittings for the light along with the shades, but, Grasby says, “electronics would have been a whole new realm of licensing. The standard UK socket suddenly makes the whole thing more affordable—99p [about $1.60] at a hardware store.”

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