🌈 Loulou
I take you with me in the creation of our new lamp, Loulou .
A pop and colorful beauty, imagined thinking of my wonderful daughter ♥️
Round, colorful and joyful, I tell you everything!
Adelaide
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The story of the Loulou lamp begins on a weekend, more than a year ago, of those where we let time slip by slowly...
I settled down with the idea of creating a new lamp (just that), next to my daughter who was rolling, crushing, spreading, kneading her modeling clay.
I watched her do it, I observed the naturalness with which she created her shapes, mixed the colors.
I was inspired by his spontaneity, that of children who color, draw, assemble, without thinking, without wondering if this color goes well with the other, if this form is sufficiently evocative. Without wondering if it's beautiful and what we'll think about it.
Freedom...
So between the two of us, we looked for shapes, we made mini lamps out of modeling clay, pink & green, yellow & blue... round ones, square ones, ones that are a bit of a pain in the ass, ugly ones & twisted ones, really pretty ones but completely unachievable...
And then the general idea became clearer and clearer. This lamp was going to be cheerful, was going to have at least two colors, and was going to be round and playful.
We were going to be able to compose it like we put together a game.
And above all, above all: her name would be LouLou.
♥️
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October 2021.
Head to Portugal to visit one of our manufacturers (the glassmaker behind the Bloom globes) and submit the idea for this new lamp to him.
Barely out of Lisbon airport, on their way to their office...
A little tour through their workshops, to discover their new shapes, new finishes and new colors... it's a bit like my DisneyLand :)
Then we lock ourselves up for several hours with the product designer to think together about this future LouLou,
I evoke what I want, what I imagine, while assembling, stacking shapes and colors with their samples...
What I have in front of my eyes doesn't have much to do with the final version, they look more like fragile totems that hold their balance, but I believe - I know - that I have in front of me what will become this lamp I dream of!
Now, I would like to have the magic power to shorten the time before the reception of the first prototypes.
This is without counting on the 200 exchanges of emails that will take place before, to be sure of understanding each other, the Christmas period which is approaching, the COVID which is still a bit there, the little communication hiccups, the big certainties and the big doubts...
In short, everything that takes us to this cold and gray Tuesday morning when we are dropped off a palette at the office...
But that's the next episode!
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February 2022
I had been waiting for this moment for several months and despite all the focus and love given to other projects, I couldn't wait to unbox this palette and start "playing" with this LouLou.
She looks like any palette, plus she had been waiting for me outside like a lost soul by the time I got to the office. I think that day I went there jumping.
I had stayed in October in Lisbon, with photos of stacked lampshades for which you had to project yourself very hard in order to visualize the final version. I showed them to everyone with too much excitement in my voice, thank you to them for encouraging me in this projection!
And there, I have in front of my eyes the finished elements in the right shape and in the (almost) right colors.
A few small details to refine but otherwise, we're there, I'm there, she's there...
The cable is not the right one yet, I don't like the color of the socket, we have to review the assembly, we have to test each lampshade to choose, choose, choose...
I have the choice between two shade shapes (I'm keeping the second one a secret because it might come out later) and several glass finishes.
The lamp and its possibilities take shape even a little better, it's time to play with the bases and the lampshades and to love each combination created.
So why choose? It becomes obvious that this LouLou is like a construction game where everyone can create their favorite version.
That evening, a LouLou lamp comes home with me to meet its muse, its inspiration. And I think she saw all the love I put into it
♥️