Q&A | LZF Lighting to Debut in China
The Spanish artisan lighting brand answers our questions on sustainability, design trends, and participation in Shenzhen’s Design Dome 2022.
Created in 1994 by partners Mariví Calvo and Sandro Tothill—one a Valencian artist and the other a Queensland musician—Spanish brand LZF is a perfect meld of wood and lights. Gentle and warm, yet unique and sometimes whimsical, LZF’s lamps are exclusively handmade and use only FSC-certified natural wood veneers, honoring the brand’s day-one commitment to craftsmanship and the planet. The wood material gets treated with the brand’s own patented Timberlite™ technique, which gives the required flexibility and resistance without any chemical processes.
Through its extensive catalogue and tens of international design awards (the most recent ones being the 2021 NYCxDesign and Good Design awards), LZF has grown from its humble beginnings into an acclaimed name among the world’s contemporary artisans. Its collections have illuminated numerous exhibitions, public spaces, and homes worldwide. And with Design Dome’s turn coming this year, visitors will get to see some of the brand’s most popular and latest—including the lifesize Smelly Fant and the first collections to introduce the use of hand-blown glass: Dune, Estela, and Eris.
LZF will debut in China this year through participation in Design Dome 2022. Which products will you display at the exhibition? What are the main characteristics that you want to show and the concept you hope to convey?
LZF will debut in China this year through participation in Design Dome 2022. Which products will you display at the exhibition? What are the main characteristics that you want to show and the concept you hope to convey?
What’s LZF’s impression of the Chinese market?
We believe that it is a fascinating moment for China, one where our product can be loved and appreciated by the Chinese public. Anyone who appreciates the talent and finesse of a traditional handmade object will fall in love with LZF, and we think that the taste for the exquisite that the Chinese people have will mean they will connect well with the product and the warmth of the material.
LZF will debut in China this year through participation in Design Dome 2022. Which products will you display at the exhibition? What are the main characteristics that you want to show and the concept you hope to convey?
What’s LZF’s impression of the Chinese market?
We believe that it is a fascinating moment for China, one where our product can be loved and appreciated by the Chinese public. Anyone who appreciates the talent and finesse of a traditional handmade object will fall in love with LZF, and we think that the taste for the exquisite that the Chinese people have will mean they will connect well with the product and the warmth of the material.
What concepts and principles do you adopt to design LZF’s highly creative products?
What concepts and principles do you adopt to design LZF’s highly creative products?
The creation and the possibilities of wood modeling go hand in hand. They depend on the technique that is being studied. Initially, we have a great contribution to make when working with the artist and/or designer.
The concept of creation has to go hand in hand with poetry, tranquillity, and above all respect for the materials to those that are increasingly linked to concepts such as: Will this object die? What will we do with it once its life is over? The materials should, as far as possible, be biodegradable.
The final intention is to offer unique, emotional, and functional objects.
LZF always works with a host of talented designers and has won more than 30 awards. What distinguishes the designers selected by LZF from the average designers? How do you classify them?
LZF always works with a host of talented designers and has won more than 30 awards. What distinguishes the designers selected by LZF from the average designers? How do you classify them?
We believe in collaboration, the designers whom we have worked most successfully with are the ones who join our team and feel like part of the LZF family. Designers who by designing a piece for us become part of our overall project. Design is about working together, we can learn from each other to create new collections and sensations.
What trends or challenges have you observed in lamp (lighting) design?
Nowadays, people are increasingly interacting with objects, modeling them according to the needs of each moment, which means that technology is a primordial element when designing and approaching a vision of the future adapted to the changing and different needs and preferences of each individual and each circumstance.
Adapting them to home automation to be able to treat lighting jointly or to control different light temperatures is increasingly essential.
We believe in collaboration, the designers whom we have worked most successfully with are the ones who join our team and feel like part of the LZF family. Designers who by designing a piece for us become part of our overall project. Design is about working together, we can learn from each other to create new collections and sensations.
What trends or challenges have you observed in lamp (lighting) design?
Nowadays, people are increasingly interacting with objects, modeling them according to the needs of each moment, which means that technology is a primordial element when designing and approaching a vision of the future adapted to the changing and different needs and preferences of each individual and each circumstance.
Adapting them to home automation to be able to treat lighting jointly or to control different light temperatures is increasingly essential.
We believe in collaboration, the designers whom we have worked most successfully with are the ones who join our team and feel like part of the LZF family. Designers who by designing a piece for us become part of our overall project. Design is about working together, we can learn from each other to create new collections and sensations.
What trends or challenges have you observed in lamp (lighting) design?
Nowadays, people are increasingly interacting with objects, modeling them according to the needs of each moment, which means that technology is a primordial element when designing and approaching a vision of the future adapted to the changing and different needs and preferences of each individual and each circumstance.
Adapting them to home automation to be able to treat lighting jointly or to control different light temperatures is increasingly essential.
The current wave of design triggered by technological changes is continuously bringing human imagination of the future into reality. What are your expectations for the future of lamp (lighting) design?
The current wave of design triggered by technological changes is continuously bringing human imagination of the future into reality. What are your expectations for the future of lamp (lighting) design?
As we said, technology sews together the activity of the elements that are conjugated in a given space, with them we can go through innumerable states of mind, enhancing them.
The generalized understanding of what surrounds us in order to establish a good dialogue between nature, objects, and people’s quality of life requires accessible, multidisciplinary, and easy-to-use technology, and certifications compatible for all countries.
The pandemic has brought massive changes to the world. Could you share a bit about LZF’s experience? How the pandemic has affected the brand?
The pandemic has brought massive changes to the world. Could you share a bit about LZF’s experience? How the pandemic has affected the brand?
The pandemic has consolidated the values that have been in our DNA since the beginning of LZF.
Working with natural, biodegradable materials in every facet of our work.
Respecting the necessary time to continue to have careful and quality manufacturing.
To continue collaborating with different professionals from different specialties in order to understand how manual manufacturing must adapt to new needs, learning, changing, updating, and improving both our philosophy and our products.
We had an enormous increase in retail online sales, end-users which we were not expecting as we generally do most of our work in contract projects. The contract projects slowed throughout the pandemic, and the retail sales went up.
LZF-Link-Chain
LZF-Link
In an industry with new inspirations and new ideas born each day, what do you think is the biggest challenge in the future?
In an industry with new inspirations and new ideas born each day, what do you think is the biggest challenge in the future?
To be more respectful of our actions and to think about the future in a more posthumanist way.
Here it is no longer only people who matter, but the fundamental need to respect the world that surrounds and sustains us.
The new generations are no longer content with the blindness of excessive and unconscious consumption, but demand a more complex vision that allows them to enjoy the beauty and conservation of a world that is changing out of control too quickly and leaving them clearly disadvantaged.
What plans does LZF have for China in 2022? Any new brand updates or new creations?
What plans does LZF have for China in 2022? Any new brand updates or new creations?
This is our first campaign in China, we would like to understand the target audience we are addressing, to offer them a new way of understanding the warmth of our lighting, to make them fall in love with our products.
We have a new collection for this year that we are testing at the moment that has to do with mobility and adaptation to spaces.
Which LZF product would you recommend to consumers, and why?
Which LZF product would you recommend to consumers, and why?
Dune is one of the novelties presented at this fair, a way of combining opposing concepts and materials, a warm surface such as wood with a cold one, glass, with a minimum of parts used in the assembly.
The reflections in the glass accompany and magnify the interior wood, offering a beautiful and elegant image.
On the other hand it represents a new collaboration of LZF with the studio Mayice architects and the participation of a master glassblower who uses his own technique which he invented and made entirely by hand. Turning this collection into a set of unique pieces of great artistic value.
This piece has received a double award in the USA by the magazine “Interior Design” and the NYCxDesign award in 2021.
LZF-Dune
LZF-Dune
Discover more about the allure of LZF as it makes its debut at Design Dome, Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center, July 25-28, 2022. Tickets can be purchased here.