Studiopepe Turns a Prism into a Sculptural Light

October 20, 2022

“The challenge in designing lights is that sometimes you are more fascinated by the forms and the shapes rather than the lighting itself,” says Chiara Di Pinto, co-founder of the Milan design, architecture, and creative direction agency Studiopepe, along with Arianna Lelli Mami. “It’s really important to us to think about what kind of light that object produces.”

This was especially true as the agency designed the Stick collection for Contardi. Chiara and Arianna began with a basic shape, closely related to light: the prism. The resulting fixture injects this form with an atmospheric and textured light created by a ribbed diffuser. “We put lots of effort into choosing the diffuser that has this kind of movement. It’s something that for us is also technical, but on the other hand, it’s more characteristic of the project. It’s really a sculpture,” Chiara says.

The idea all started from the prism as “a sort of archetype of light,” Chiara says, calling back to the shape’s ability to divide the spectrum into its seven colors. “We really want to keep it as simple as possible, but as we all know, the simple things require lots of studies and detail to be made properly,” Chiara says. Thanks to the technical expertise of Contardi, Chiara and Arianna experimented to find the right ways to diffuse and dim Stick’s light, to hide all joints and fixing points, and to match their vision for the fixture’s finish—which Arianna says was one of the more time-consuming challenges.

In its final form, Stick is minimalist and sculptural. Triangular elements create different experiences with light depending on the viewing angle. With a range of mounted and suspended versions, the fixture is capable of illuminating a variety of spaces, both residential and public, and is available in satin gold nickel or satin copper finishes. Bright Yellow, Dark Green, Terracotta and Mastic limited edition finishes are offered upon request.

“The Stick collection reflects the things that we try to express with our design, working on the simplicity, but at the same time making something very iconographic,” Chiara says, “We developed a family that is much larger than what we have right now in the market, but in the future, the family will grow. The ideas came really easily.”