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Signify acquires WiZ Connected

(Netherlands) - Signify has entered into the
world of Wi-Fi-based smart lighting with the acquisition of WiZ Connected.

Signify has agreed to
aquire WiZ Connected, developers of the WiZ Wi-Fi-based connected lighting
ecosystem.

“We are very pleased to
join forces with the teams of WiZ Connected, who have developed a great
technology platform enabling to address a larger customer base in the growing
market of Wi-Fi-based lighting,” said Eric Rondolat, CEO of Signify. “It
perfectly complements Signify’s existing offers and will help us to continue to
deliver an experience rich in light and intuitive in use for our customers.”

“We are pleased to be
part of Signify,” added Jean-Eudes Leroy, CEO of WiZ Connected. “WiZ is an open
IoT platform, accessible to all lighting and electrical vendors, providing the
benefits of connected devices to all end-users.

“Together with Signify,
we will reach a large audience of unaddressed customers with our easy-to-use,
scalable solution.”

WiZ Connected is
headquartered in Hong Kong, and its 53 staff members will continue to sell
Wi-Fi-based connected lamps and luminaires across the world under its own brand
name.

The transaction is
expected to close in the second quarter of 2019.

www.signify.com

by dbell

Design Holding to debut in Milan

(Italy) – Flos, Louis Poulsen and B&B Italia announce joint participation at Salone del Mobile.

Flos, Louis Poulsen and B&B Italia will participate at the 58th edition of Salone del Mobile in Milan as Design Holding. Recently created by Investindustrial and The Carlyle Group, Design Holding is a new global high-end interior design group that brings together the three iconic companies.

The three brands will showcase their collections in three distinctive areas of an all-encompassing booth designed by Calvi Branbilla, located in the new S.Project pavilion (Halls 22-24) – a cross-cutting exhibition format making its debut this year.

The booth is conceived to reflect the philosophy of Design Holding, by putting on stage the common narration of three strong individual identities boasting extraordinary design histories, along with their unique ability of exploring new talents and releasing new iconic designs. All companies will demonstrate how their connection to history is still vivid, by visually relating cult pieces to stunning novelties by contemporary design masters.

Flos will launch the re-edition of one of its cult designs from the 60s, the lamp Chiara by Mario Bellini, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, and will also release the first edition of an extraordinary 1957 design by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, the Bulbo lamp.

Flos will also present innovative designs and original lighting systems created by Michael Anastassiades, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Antonio Citterio, Formafantasma, Piero Lissoni, Nendo, Philippe Starck and Patricia Urquiola, to enrich its Home, Architectural and Outdoor lighting catalogues.

Louis Poulsen will highlight some of its renowned masterpieces born from the long-lasting collaborations with Danish design legends like Poul Henningsen, Arne Jacobsen and Verner Panton followed by welcoming back icons from Vilhelm Lauritzen, continuing with Christian Flindt, Øivind Slaatto and more recently with the duo GamFratesi. The grounded connection between past and present is once again made clear with a new big creative challenge: at the Milan fair Louis Poulsen will debut its first collaboration with the great Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, introducing the extraordinary OE Quasi.

Design Holding’s first exhibition at the most important and influential design fair in the world represents an ideal, noteworthy starting point for its goal to establish a leadership in high-end global design.

Piero Gandini, Chairman of Design Holding and CEO of Flos, commented: “The idea behind Design Holding is to bring together companies that make excellence in design their founding value. If we look at Flos, B&B Italia and Louis Poulsen, in fact, we note that, despite being different in so many respects (furniture and lamps, the ‘Made in Italy’ concept and Danish design), they have always shared strong values such as cultural commitment and the great quality of their products.

“For many decades, the history of industrial design has been marked by the extraordinary icons generated by these companies through partnerships with legendary designers. I believe that this shared premise of passion and research is the ideal strategic foundation for the development of Design Holding.

“This year’s great product innovations, created together with the best that the creative minds of design have to offer, are a clear testimony to this. We decided to present the three companies individually but in a single space at the Salone del Mobile precisely to show what they have in common in their past and also in their future.

“It is the first step in a project that aims to bring together businesses, each with its own strong, unique nature, under a unanimous banner of international growth based on shared values and visions.

“Presiding over Design Holding gives me great motivation to continue pursuing synergic programs of business development and design research at their best expression.”
About Design Holding.

Design Holding is the largest global high-end design group with a European heritage.
Founded in December 2018 and jointly controlled by companies of the two leading investment groups Investindustrial and The Carlyle Group, Design Holding aims to further grow globally through acquisitions as well.

www.flos.com
www.louispoulsen.com

by dbell

Zumtobel redesigns Swiss customer centre

(Switzerland) - Zumtobel welcomed around 200 guests to Zurich to mark the redesign of its Light Centre.

The Zumtobel Group recently celebrated the redesign of its Zurich Light Centre with a special opening ceremony.

Around 200 guests attended the official opening of the 740sqm site, located on Thurgauerstrasse 39, in the Swiss city to take in its conceptual redesign.

Intended to create a “future-oriented customer platform”, the Light Centre aims to convey the experience of light in its various applications, underlining the extensive lighting expertise of the Zumtobel Group and its brands.

“We are delighted to have created a future-oriented platform for our customers with the new Light Centre Zurich, which shows everything from light to IoT solutions,” said Marc-André Rusch, General Manager of Zumtobel Switzerland.

“The final location inspires and creates an inviting space to discuss and design lighting solutions together with our customers. It is a place where light can be experienced, and it is enormously important to us to be able to convey this experience of light to our customers.”

With the renovation of the Light Centre - initially opened in 1999 by light artist James Turrell - its content has been revised. The underlying concept of the new centre is an open space, part of which can be utilised flexibly. Its various themes encourage exchange and networking, offering customers and employees a lively and dynamic meeting area that at the same time provides room for presentation of the latest product and system innovations and smart lighting solutions.

A special highlight of the newly renovated Light Centre is the Zumtobel Masterpiece by US architect Daniel Libeskind, visible both from inside and outside, behind the glass façade.

To mark the launch of the redesigned centre, EOOS designer Harald Gründl from Vienna, Austria, presented the new Zumtobel Supersystem integral collection with specifically created wall reliefs, which will remain at the new Light Centre as exhibits.

www.zumtobelgroup.com

by dbell

LIA announce working partnership with UL

(UK) - The partnership has been set up to help UK manufacturers looking to export their products overseas.

The Lighting Industry Association (LIA) has joined forces with UL’s global lighting expertise in testing, certification and standards, offering UK lighting manufacturers product compliance entrance to more than 50 countries, including the USA and Canada.

The partnership will give the entire lighting supply chain access to the largest lighting-specific laboratory in Europe, with the help and advice that both organisations can provide for UK companies looking to export.

Hans Laschefski of UL said: “UL meets the needs of the lighting industry so effectively because we know the industry from the inside out. Our active leadership in lighting standards development committees and industry technical task groups, and our participation in global industry conferences and trade shows allow us to deepen our understanding of the ever-evolving lighting industry and to share this critical business intelligence with our customers.

“This partnership is the culmination of discussions over the last two years and will ake the process of offering the UL Mark to UK manufacturers more simple and effective.”

Steve Davies from the LIA continued: “The LIA continues in its aim to provide its members quality comprehensive testing and certification for their lighting products so that our members can successfully export their products around the world. By creating partnerships like this we continue to offer the most complete range of services from our laboratory in Telford.”

Tariq Malik, LIA Laboratory Operations Manager, added: “The work has now been completed for us to be able to complete the testing aspect of the UL Mark, and we are looking forward to building our relationship with UL.”

www.thelia.org.uk

by dbell

Speirs + Major, Occhio & Tobias Grau among those honoured at iF Design Award Ceremony

(Germany) - The 65^th edition of the iF Design Awards was held at the BMW Welt in Munich on 15 March 2019.

The international design world gathered on 15 March to celebrate the best in design from the past 12 months at the iF Design Awards 2019.

Held once again at the BMW Welt in Munich, Germany, the 65^th edition of the awards attracted more than 2,000 guests from 42 countries to honour this year’s 66 Gold Award winners.

An independent jury of 67 experts from 20 countries met in Hamburg in January of this year to choose the winners of this year’s awards. These spanned across seven categories, from Product Design, Communication Design, Packaging Design and Service Design, to Architecture, Interior Architecture and Professional Concept.

Among the Lighting-related Gold Award winners, Occhio and Tobias Grau won Gold Awards for the Mito Largo floor lamp and Salt & Pepper lamp respectively, while the Macallan Distillery, featuring lighting design from Speirs + Major, won a Gold Award in the Interior Architecture category.

A total of 6,375 entries from 50 countries were registered for the completion across the seven disciplines. Jury Chairman Fritz Frenkler said of the calibre of entries: “We, the jury, were genuinely impressed to see how high the design quality of many products has become. An acceptable design is now seen as standard, as is the quality of the workmanship.

“It is, however, striking that there is a great desire to follow design benchmarks rather than daring to try anything really new. It takes a great deal of courage to be truly innovative and shareholders who are prepared to take a risk. At the same time, it is not about striving for diversity at any cost - good, clear and intuitive design is what the user should be offered - in any design discipline.”

iF Design Award winners for lighting also included, among others, LED Linear, Osram, Erco, Arkoslight, Linea Light Group, Zumtobel, Ribag, XAL and L&L Luce&Light.

During the awards ceremony, iF CEO Ralph Weigmann commemorated seven companies for their continual and successful participation in the iF Design Awards, from its inception in 1954 to the present day. These companies were Braun, Jungheinrich, Rosenthal, MAN Truck & Bus, WMF Group, Sartorius and Siemens.

www.ifworlddesignguide.com

by dbell

IALD Celebrates 50th Anniversary

(USA) - The IALD is to commemorate its landmark 50^th anniversary with events around the world throughout 2019.

The International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) is this year celebrating a momentous milestone, as 2019 marks 50 years of serving its members and the entire lighting design profession.

Initially established in 1969 as a small group of passionate and dedicated architectural lighting designers with the goal of elevating the profession of independent lighting design, the organisation has steadily grown into a global association that now represents over 1,450 members across more than 60 countries.

“Today we celebrate lighting design as a well-established and growing profession,” said IALD President, David Ghatan, IALD, CLD. “IALD’s tremendous membership growth is due in large part to our strategic focus on building community, and it is representative of the global growth of our profession.

“The work of lighting designers is no longer about just illuminating a space - our work, more than ever, is about quality of life in light.”

As part of this landmark anniversary, the IALD has prepared for celebrations and recognitions to take place throughout the year at region and chapter events around the world, beginning at IALD Enlighten Asia, and including Lightfair International, the IALD International Lighting Design Awards Event, and culminating at IALD Enlighten Americas in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 3-5 October.

Marsha Turner, CAE, Chief Executive Officer of IALD, added: “As we embark on a yearlong celebration, the entire community is invited to join us in looking to the future; together, we’ll continue to create a better world through our dedication to excellence in lighting design and the power of light in human life.”

The IALD community is comprised of dedicated lighting design professionals whose work integrates the arts, sciences and business of illumination design. IALD has worked to elevate its members and the role of lighting design around the world through educating and empowering lighting designers at every level; fostering connections to build community by engaging them globally while connecting them locally; and by advocating on their behalf for regulatory and policy issues impacting the profession.

IALD further extends its reach and amplifies its voice by establishing close relationships with lighting associations and other related associations around the world.

www.iald.org

by dbell