To-Tie: It's all in the name
The unique new table lamp from Milanese designer Guglielmo Poletti
To-Tie is the new lamp from Flos and the first ever piece of lighting design from exciting new designer, Guglielmo Poletti, who declares himself a proponent of “self-explanatory” design. And To-Tie couldn’t be more self-explanatory: a distinctive table lamp made up of a series of elements reduced to the bare minimum, tied together by mechanical tension alone and with a name that perfectly completes the piece.
Photography Bea De Giacomo
The result is a striking yet simple design entirely developed around the gesture of tying, without the need for screws, glues, or welding. The clever structure not only makes the lamp highly sustainable but also allows the different elements to perform multiple functions. The light source is integrated into an aluminium bar that also acts as a handle while the fabric electrical cable is not only the power source but the crucial element that ties everything together.
Three different lamps make up the To-Tie collection, each with the right size and proportion for a specific context. Use the smallest model as a bedside light, place the taller version on a console, and the largest will fit perfectly on a low table in your living room. Wherever they are positioned, the To-Tie lamps will make their presence felt thanks to their unique and peculiar composition.
Guglielmo Poletti has arrived at this moment in his career via an unusual and non-linear path, which feels only appropriate. A lecture he attended sparked a little flame of interest that saw him gradually and autonomously approach the world of design, completing internship and workshop experiences with two very different design personalities before attending Design Academy Eindhoven.
Poletti now works out of the studio space in Milan that he designed and renovated himself. Poletti’s creative process relies on the art of making and in-depth research into structural tension and materials, which he uses to trigger intuitions. The creative freedom and unique know-how offered by Flos to designers enabled him to translate his experimental approach and expertise into an industrial lighting product. And this first lamp for Flos embodies the spirit of the Castiglioni brothers and their ingenious ready-mades. In other words, a very Flos lamp.
