A beautiful new portable lamp design from Yoshiki Matsuyama has been designed for Ambientec to evoke the soft and majestic body lines of a whale. Ambientec presents Cachalot, a new portable lamp that evokes the softness and warm light of the ocean.
The designer says that Cachalot is an evocative and symbolic object, avoiding any cartoonish or overly-literal reference to the cetacean figure, while perfectly grasping its essential and familiar form. And it’s true. This lamp is the perfect impression of the body of a whale surfacing through sunlit water. It is designed to inspire the owner to develop an affectionate relationship with the object, which you can take anywhere.
“As a child, I was enchanted by the whales and cetaceans in picture books and adventure novels,” says Yoshiki Matsuyama. “Today as a designer I find the shape of these ocean creatures fascinating: powerful and fluid, yet also warm and gentle. It is this majesty imbued with sweetness that I hoped to convey with Cachalot. Its soft light spreads into the night and makes time seem to slow down — just like how a whale moves through the depths of a silent sea, creating an atmosphere of peace and quiet.”
The Cachalot lamp has a soft transparent look and a sculptural form, while also being a prime example of craftsmanship in a high-tech poetic design. Additionally, the base of the lamp is die-cast zinc with copper plating. The lampshade is clear acrylic in clear or dark gray. Tube-shaped LEDs are also used inside in a unique proprietary technology to produce a warm ambient light. Lithium-ion batteries charge the lamp for 12-24 hours of dim or high light.
Ambientec says the Cachalot lamp is a declaration of love for the depths of the sea. It’s the company’s first design inspired by nature. LED technology also makes it sustainable and energy-saving. Ambientec’s founder originally designed the RGBlue brand of underwater photography lights, and so the Cachalot lamp returns the founder of the company to his roots.
The new lamp is being celebrated with a project to raise awareness of documentary work created by marine biologists and underwater photographers to protect the marine environment. In fact, Ambientec is donating 1% of Cachalot’s annual sales to marine environmental protection charities.
Gorgeous portable lamp mimics the body of a whale [Inhabitat]