Brooklyn studio Pelle has unveiled a range of modular, stick-style lighting that can be configured into simple or complex shapes.
The Pris collection offers ceiling-mounted and wall-suspended lights that come in three standard types: Pris Sconce, Pris Minor and Pris Major. The studio named the range after a character from 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner.
"We gave the line the name Pris because it had a very fem-bot character to it," said Pelle co-founder Jean Pelle.
The designs can be customised because of how the fixtures are assembled. Each is composed of length-adjustable linear arms that attach to connectors. Arms can be added or subtracted.
"The jewel-shaped connectors form the basis for the Pris system and help create an expandable language of visual geometries," said the studio.
The linear arms are fitted with up and down diffusers that emit a warm LED light. Made of aluminium, the fixtures are offered in a satin brass, dark bronze or polished nickel finish.
The Pris line was unveiled in May during the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York.
"We always wanted to put out a line of lights that was the very opposite of our Bubble Chandeliers, which is the main lighting line we produce," said Jean Pelle. One of the Bubble Chandeliers was featured in a recent exhibition that paired furnishing by Piero Lissoni with work by emerging New York designers.
"We were interested in symmetry and having a certain rigour with its geometry," she said. "We knew that having a strong graphic quality to it would mix nicely with the materials we were using."
The Pris fixtures are intended to help satisfy requests from architects and designers who need lighting that can fit in spaces with low ceilings.
"We considered that this light may be a decorative alternate to some linear diffusers out there," explained Jean Pelle.
Based in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighbourhood, Pelle was launched in 2011 by Jean and Oliver Pelle, who both studied architecture at Yale. In addition to lighting, the studio products handcrafted furniture and homeware.
The studio describes its work as a merging of "architecture practice and pristine craftwork", with pieces that are intended "to be lived with, handled, worn and enjoyed".
Pelle is one of the many studios that make up the burgeoning lighting scene in New York, alongside designers such as Bec Brittain, Workstead, and Tokenlights.
In a recent Dezeen story about the current American design scene, Oliver Pelle said New York designers are often entrepreneurial due to the lack of opportunities with large companies.
"Among larger manufacturers, there isn't much interest in bringing in young designers," he said. "A lot of design is for large corporations – and industrial design has focused on that typology."
from dezeen