Feature

darc's 10 favourite covers, so far...

Over the last decade, darc has featured some of the most stunning decorative lighting designs and outstanding projects on its covers. Together as a team, we have selected our favourite covers from across the years, which feature either some of our personal favourite designs, interviews, projects, or even favourite colour combinations that we believe stood out beautifully on a magazine rack. Be rest assured, this was a very difficult task for us to narrow down our favourites - the office floor had every issue sprawled out… If you did not make the shortlist, be comforted that EVERY design on our covers is a favourite - you wouldn't have been featured be on there otherwise! Thank you to everyone we have worked with leading up to this 10th anniversary. We are so excited to see what the next 10+ years will bring for us as a publication, but also for the decorative lighting world. And, we are very grateful to still be here after a challenging couple of years. It was touch and go and times, but if all goes well, darc won’t be going anywhere for the foreseeable!

Thanks all, from darc magazine.

Issue #18 Nov/Dec 2016

As part of London Design Festival in 2016, Lee Broom unveiled Opticality. It was an engaging and experiential post-modern Op Art exhibition at his flagship store in Shoreditch. Transforming his showroom entirely with wall-to-wall mirrors and an Op Art inspired floor, the exhibit celebrated the retail launch of the Optical lighting collection. Moving through the space, visitors became immersed in the installation and its infinity of mirrors and reflections, where they eventually discovered the Optical collection. Broom's work is typically influenced by the eras of his childhood, and Optical is no exception. Taking centre stage at Opticality, this collection was inspired by the early 90s and Broom's childhood bedroom, which he decorated with a strong Op Art aesthetic. www.leebroom.com Cover image: Luke Hayes

Issue #20 Mar/Apr 2017

As part of issue #20's outdoor lighting feature, darc sat down with Lighting Designer Mark Sutton Vane, who shared his expertise in exterior lighting, and how the right decorative lighting product can add to that all-important ambience. Taken from the feature, pictured on the cover is Luceplan's Javelot Macro designed by Odile Decq in 2010. Javelot Macro was born ‘ad hoc’ for the expansion project of the Macro (Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art). As described by Studio Odile Decq, the product was "conceived to coherently interpret the intentions of the designer in a quest for dynamic equilibrium of spaces and structures. The Javelot Macro lamp was created in two versions: a ceiling light for interiors and a landscape light for outdoors. The outdoor piece consists of three luminous ‘javelins’ that intersect at an asymetrical joint assembled on a pole, giving rise to a sculpture creating unprecedented outdoor choregraphies." www.luceplan.com www.odiledecq.com Cover image: Georges Fessy

Issue #23 Nov/Dec 2017

On the cover of this issue, editorial contributer Maria Oberti sat down with Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis, who explored the creative potential of neon in a series of sculptural resin and glass lighting collections. Pictured is the original 2015 Voi Lights collection. The Dutch / New Zealander designer started life off as a snowboarding instructor in New Zealand and Canada, before going through a pivotal shift into industrial design, following in her sister's footsteps. Oberti wrote: For a young designer, still at the bud of her career, Marcelis is extremely disciplined. 'I don't want to repeat myself,' she says. 'I don't want to keep making the same things over and over again. Of course, there's a red thread that runs across my work, but if there's the possibility to do something custom or specific to the project, then that's definitely my preference. "While Marcelis' body of work is varied, ranging from custom interiors to ticking clocks, the shining theme that unites them all is, as she explained, 'this fascination with light, both natural and artificial, and how, when combined with other materials, light becomes a tool for seeing something other than you'd normally see. It's all about creating wonder. Resins and glass are the perfect materials for that'." www.sabinemarcelis.com Cover image: Lee Wei Swee

Issue #25 Mar/Apr 2018

In the run up to Light + Building 2018, the Mar/Apr issue was jam-packed with heaps of new products and designs. The cover featured Formagenda's double suspension Pearl's pendant designed by Benjamin Hopf, placed on a chic pink background, coincidentally tying in with the issue's celebration of Women in Lighting. The Pearls is a timeless, elegant design, which combines mouth-blown opal glass spheres in two different sizes, resulting in various arrangements and shapes. The Pearls family comes in various versions including suspensions lamps, floor lamps, and wall lamps. An easy exchange of LED modules and bespoke solutions allows the Pearls to be suitable for different settings and environments. www.formagenda.com Cover Image: Kilian Blees

#27 Sep/Oct 2018

As part of the designjunction preview in this issue, Northern's Fold pendant featured on the cover for its striking aesthetic and beautiful colour combination in the image. Designed by Kyla McCallum for Northern, the unique pendant, available in green, pink, and dark grey, has a structured shade formed of repeated folds influenced by Japanese origami. The shade is made from wool with a lamination process, and is supported by an inner structure that holds its shape. The material and shape also brings an acousticabsorbing element to any environment it is situated in. www.northern.no

Issue #28 Nov/Dec 2018

This stunningly bright cover comes from the Miss Wong project located in Laval, Canada. Named after the Chinese-American actress from the 1920s-30s, Miss Anna May Wong, the charming restaurant's aesthetic took influence from 1980 San Franciscan Chinatown. Montréal-based Ménard Dworking Architecture and Design (MRDK) created the striking concept for the dining and bar space. In the project write-up, darc spoke with Dave Dworkind to find out more. "We always custom-design all of our lamps to give more personality to projects. In the case of Miss Wong, we opted for a low lighting approach where most of of the lamps start from the ground or from the tables. That way, we were able to practically make the 22ft-high ceiling disappear." Throughout this project, the team selected decorative lighting elements from d'Armes, which supplied the RA suspension pendants, custom neon signage and chinese lanters, and Le Lampiste Beloeil's custom table lamps. www.menarddworkind.com Cover Image: David Dworkind

Issue #29 Jan/Feb 2019

Manchester, UK-based Mana restaurant is the brainchild of ex-Noma chef Simon Martin. Its designer, James Roberts Design, created a unique restaurant that combines nature and architecture in the centre of the northern city. The large volume of the space evokes a religious, place of worship, feeling to the dining area. Roberts told darc about the vision for the restaurant's scheme: "Simon had a clear vision for the project and had indentified a location in Ancoats, but needed direction to translate his vision. He needed a creative team involved to drive it. "He had the brand name 'Mana' with the definition: 'The power of the elemental forces of nature embodied in an object or person,' and he wanted to celebrate British food." Featured lighting include Brokis' Puro-simple and Mona pieces. Selected as one of our favourite projects from over darc's 10 years, check out our look back at the project and Roberts' reflections on the design, and how it has whethered the demands of a hospitality environment, in our Project Highlights feature onp.28. www.jamesrobertsdesign.com Cover Image: Midi Photography

Issue #31 May/Jun 2019

Pictured on the cover is design studio Masquespacio's Shade pendant. This beautiful geometric lamp is part of the lighting collection created by Belgian-Colombian Christophe Penasse and Valencian Ana Milen Hernández Palacios, the power duo behind the practice. After the strategic rebrand of decorative lighting company Raco, Masquespacio designed Shade as part of a new collection. The design sought its inspiration through the shadows of our lives projected by the Mediterranean light. Shade creates a strong contrast between materials that are not usual in the lighting sector, combining raffia, leather, marble and brass, while it shows characteristics from postmodernism. www.masquespacio.com Cover Image: Luis Beltra

Issue #38 Nov/Dec 2020

Designed by Alexandre Joncas and Gildas Le Bars, Etat-des-Lieux is the unique and playful suspension lamp to grace the winter edition's front cover, which comes from Canada-based Studio d'Armes. Using a wide, flexible, conductive cable, the elegant installation provides flexibility for designers to adapt to their individual requirements. "The design process started around the idea of a strap that would serve as a conductor but also as the suspension system, which presented in itself many challenges with the extrusion uniformity. The solution laid by pushing the boundaries of process making and by finding just the right amount of tension for the size of extrusion with our sight set on functionality and aesthetics," describe the designers. The shape of the glass globe was conceived with geometry on a rotating axis following a pulse line, which gives an organic impression of mountains mirrored on a lake. www.darmes.ca

Issue #42 Sep/Oct 2021

As part of the Milan Design Week coverage for 2021, darc looked more closely at the ethereal installation, Paradise, by Lindsey Adelman. Presented at Alcova, Adelman's fantasy, yet punk-aesthetic, exhibit demonstrated her meticulous methods for crafting decorative lighting pieces. The collection is characterised by using swathes of chains and handblown glass, produced by Brooklyn-based Michiko Sakano and Vetro Vero studio in Pennsylvania, pierced and illuminated to produce the unexpected clash of art. "I was interested in creating a collection that could be more flexible in its installation and embody a more spontaneous aesthetic," says Adelman. "I was inspired by the spirit of nomadic wandering and exploration. For me, this is meaningful georgraphically speaking, but also conceptually as we can traval internally. During lockdown, it became important to continue to free up our minds and find stimulation in new ways. Travel often breaks us out of a habit. Without that, it's our responsibility to do that on our own. Paradise is about seeking, trying on new perspectives, stretching, and becoming enchanted with ways that are different from our past. Paradise inspires daydreaming and traveling physically as well as mentally." www.lindseyadelman.com Cover Image: Lindsey Adelman Studio