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10 beautiful, unexpected, and downright weird takes on the lamp
The article highlights the innovative and unconventional designs showcased at the Head Hi Lamp Show during New York's Design Week, emphasizing the importance of creativity in lighting design. For brand strategy, this signifies a growing consumer appreciation for unique, artistic products that challenge traditional aesthetics, suggesting brands should consider incorporating bold, creative elements into their offerings to stand out in a competitive market.
FastCompany: Designers love to experiment, but there’s one particular object where they tend to get especially creative and even weird: lighting. Picture a ceramic lamp sculpted into a car, a fixture and shade cast in metal swirls, and something that looks like a cork UFO. These out-of-the-box designs are part of a new exhibition during New York’s Design Week showing the unusual territory where designers are taking lighting. From left: Hawa Al-Najjar, Mazhariyya Lamp , 2025. Suna Bonometti, Solid Lace , 2026. outgoing, beacons (scale-less-ness) , 2024. [Photos: Aaron S.
Cheung/Esto/Head Hi, Brooklyn] Now in its sixth edition, the Head Hi Lamp Show brings together 36 eccentric lamps from designers located around the world. It is organized by Alexandra Hodkowski and Alvaro Alcocer, the founders of Head Hi, an architecture bookstore and cafe in Brooklyn. This year they brought in Stephen Markos, founder of the design gallery Superhouse, to curate the show.
Alexandra Hodkowski and Alvaro Alcocer [Photo: Wade James Michael/courtesy of Head Hi] “The exhibition celebrates our universal relationship to light, design and creative expression and, more specifically, objects that have the ability to change our spatial understanding, to tone our immediate atmosphere,” the organizers said in a news release. From left: Bill Carroll, Landcruising , 2025. Clement Heyraud, Colonne , 2025. Emilia Schonthal, Lamp (Fragment) , 2024. Narawit Christopher Gale (Kidtofer), H3LLR8SR , 2025. [Photos: Aaron S.
Cheung/Esto/Head Hi, Brooklyn] The lamps on view all function, but they celebrate creativity and form above all. The lineup also includes a lamp composed of a red metal frame draped with a sky print fabric as its shade by the Malaysian designer Jun Ong, a paper sconce printed with a figurative graphic by the San Francisco–based practice Studio Ahead, and a totemic marble piece by the Venetian artist Giacomo Bianco. From left: Jun Ong, AERO LAMP , 2025. MMOOS., MOSTRO VII , 2024. John Gnorski represented by Studio AHEAD, Man Kozo Lantern , 2026. [Photos: Giacomo Bianco/Esto/Head Hi, Brooklyn (Mostro VII), Aaron S.
Cheung/Esto/Head Hi, Brooklyn (others)] The show is on view at Head Hi and online from May 18 through October. All the lamps are available for sale, too.
The article showcases innovative lamp designs that reflect a shift towards creativity in consumer products, which is significant for brand strategy but may not have widespread implications across the entire industry.