Design Academy of Eindhoven, Jordan Morineau, Lest. Photograph by Ronald Smits
February - June 2018
LEST is a series of three lamps powered by gravity. The project started from questioning the beauty of analogue systems, mechanisms or asking:
“What object do you use if electricity disappears?”
It finally became a research based on mechanisms and their possibilities. The wall-mounted lamps, LEST-O, LEST-I and LEST-A are the result of this research.
Each lamp creates its own energy to illuminate, powered by ballasts or their own weight. They only need a brief human touch to be re-activated: LEST-I and LEST-A weights require to be moved while LEST-O needs to be rotated. The lamps work for around 2 minutes, based on the length of the belts.
The aesthetic was made to match the mechanisms origins. It plays with technical parts (gears, generators, LEDs, belts, weights, structures) combined with softer materials and round shapes to balance the final identity.
LEST is the french translation of ballast.
The added letters O, I and A are the shapes made by the lamps in motion.