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Plumen light bulb Wins Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2011

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Last night it was announced that the British Designer Samuel Wilkinson and the supporting product design company Hulger have scooped the Brit Insurance Design of the Year award with their innovative redesign of the low-energy light bulb.

The award was presented by the jury chair Stephen Bayley, he states "The Plumen light bulb is a good example of the ordinary thing done extraordinarily well, bringing a small measure of delight to an everyday product.

The Plumen 001 bulb managed to beat over 90 other entrees with its organic shape and sculptural silhouette which is created by bending the glass tubes of traditional bulbs into more pleasing forms. The Plumen uses 80% less energy and lasts 8 times longer then old fashioned bulbs and is a vast aesthetic improvement on the rather ugly energy saving bulb we are all used to.
Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum commented: 'A worthy winner that is both beautiful and smart. It does away with the superfluous to achieve maximum economy of means. It's a bulb that doesn't need a shade and so goes a long way to make up for the loss of the Edison original.'
It would seem as if Samuel Wilkinson is the best thing to happen to the humble light bulb since Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan first invented it over 125 years ago, Will Self, novelist and member of design jury gushes; "I don't think any of the judges feel this is the dernier cri in terms of what will be done with the low-energy light bulb, but if you'll forgive the pun they are definitely a light leading the way. We felt these bulbs were neat, appealing and covetable in the right, affordable way. Light is, of course, primary to design; without it, there can be very little, if any. The design of light sources is thus an elemental component of a design aesthetic."
Note that Will Self states that the Plumen is 'affordable' but most would disagree considering a singular bulb retails at £19.95. It would seem that Wilkinson & Hulger have already isolated the majority of their potential customer base, making the Plumen 001 a luxury product only accessible to those in ownership of boutique cafes or penthouse city apartments. You have to ask if this really the most exciting thing to have happened in the world of design this year? You can't help but compare this year's outcome to last year's equally mundane folding plug debacle. In a previous blog it was pondered why Min-Kyu Choi's plug has not been seen in any shops, the reason for this being that it's design is fundamentally unsafe and that it is far from meeting the BS 1363 plug and socket legal safety requirements. One then has to question if the Brit Insurance Design Awards are really as relevant and prestigious as they make out. What is supposed to be the voice of the future of the kind of design which will make a real impact on our lives has actually turned into an industry back scratching exercise in which unusable plugs and light bulbs which cost the earth are given more glory than other wonders such as spiny cathedrals and free open plan libraries. We can only wait and see what happens next year - an underwater light switch perhaps? Or maybe we can look forward to the reinvention of the humble dish cloth. Time will tell.

Designs Of The Year

Jessica Hazel

Writer, blogger and vintage trader.

http://creativepool.co.uk/jessicahazel
 

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