Mixed Doubles: Ruby Red

Classic pieces from the Artemide and Danese Milano collections in hues of burgundy.

Artemide and Danese Milano present the limited-edition Ruby Red Collection: an elevated selection of their most iconic pieces in shades of deep red, creating the ultimate balance of light and design. Reimagined in this new hue, these classic pieces were destined for this collection.

Timeless Design

Our story begins in the 1960s, when the Space Age ushered in an era of exciting new materials and smooth designs. Plastic opened up new creative possibilities, allowing designers to create designs from a single mould. Vico Magistretti’s 1969 Dalù lamp was the perfect embodiment of this spirit, alongside Emma Gismondi Schweinberger’s Dedalo and Dedalino, an umbrella stand and pen holder designed in 1966. Typography, too, underwent its own revolution as seen in Enzo Mari’s 1967 desk calendar, Timor, a free-spirited, playful design that even today feels remarkably contemporary. Its fan-shaped PVC cards can be arranged in countless configurations, making the piece as relevant today as when it was first created. That same year saw the creation of the mushroom-shaped Nesso and Nessino lamps. Giancarlo Mattioli and the Gruppo Architetti Urbanisti Città Nuova drew inspiration from nature, while at the same time embracing the new possibilities of material innovation: Both the lamp body and the diffuser are made from technopolymer, a material perfectly suited to fluid geometric forms. Plastic was to become the defining design element of the era.

Absolute Precision

Yet this is about more than just experimentation with form. Achieving an elegant balance of form and function is a challenge that lies at the heart of every design, and few did this better than Vico Magistretti, a master at distilling design to its purest essence. Born in 1920, the architect and designer took a bold gamble in 1970 with Teti, asking: Why not do away with the reflector? His radical reinterpretation of the lamp appeared to grow organically from the wall or ceiling. This same sense of creative freedom is also encapsulated in the timeless classic Tolomeo. Designed in 1987 by Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina, this iconic design is characterised by clean lines and a lightweight yet robust aluminium structure. The freely adjustable head with its stamped reflector enables an even distribution of light, and thanks to an innovative spring mechanism, the flexible lamp’s height and tilt can be easily adjusted, creating the perfect balance of beauty and utility.

Design is constantly evolving. It reflects the spirit of the era and embraces the latest technological innovations to create new, unique forms of expression. Artemide founder Ernesto Gismondi had a lifelong fascination with powerful designs. In his 2013 lamp Ilio, he captured the potential of LED technology in a slender, minimalist rod. Gismondi combined geometric clarity and reduction with effortless flexibility and absolute precision, reflected in the lamp’s simple operation: Ilio can be switched on and off, dimmed and controlled via the Artemide App.

The Ruby Red Collection encapsulates over five decades of design, reimagining Italian design icons for the needs and aspirations of contemporary life and casting sophisticated interior living and working spaces in the perfect light.