Design Daily: Alessi I Love Animals Bird Lamp
Author:Sarah Virginia WhiteThis gives you something to Tweet about: The endearing sparrow lamps from Italian company Alessi. Part of a project called “I Love Animals,” the glowing shapes would certainly light up a room, and are sure to be as popular stateside as they are in the UK, where they debuted earlier this year.
Designer Pier Paolo Pitacco created the birds with four elastic, graphic skins (including white, not shown) that stretch over a steel wire frame. The construction is meant to metaphorically resemble the real-life structure of the animal—the frame and fabric standing in for the skeleton and feathers. Personally, I’m not bird lover. I find everything about them to be sharp and kind of scary, so I far prefer Pitacco’s version, which is beautifully shaped and not at all likely to peck your eyes out.
It’s also pretty versatile. I could see this as a playful nightlight in a children’s room (just swap in a low-watt bulb), or resting atop a mid-century console next to minimalist ceramics and colorful Alexander Girard dolls from Vitra. Each lamp comes with two skins, one white and the other in of the three graphic prints shown here. And in addition to swapping out the cover, you can also switch things up by subbing in colored bulbs or programming a variety of colors.
