Ingo Maurer

About

Ingo Maurer is a German lighting company based in Munich, known for designing and producing decorative lamps and light installations that combine technical experimentation with a playful, artistic sensibility. The company was built around the work of its founder, the designer Ingo Maurer, who became widely known as a "poet of light" for treating illumination as an expressive medium rather than a purely functional one. Its catalogue ranges from collectible one-off installations to production lamps for homes and interiors. The company traces its origins to 1966, when Ingo Maurer (1932–2019) — who had trained in typography and graphic design before turning to lighting — established a business in Munich to develop and manufacture lamps of his own design. The venture was originally called Design M and was later renamed Ingo Maurer GmbH. From the outset the work was characterised by an interest in the light bulb itself as both a tool and a subject. Maurer's first widely recognised piece, Bulb, dates from 1966: an oversized glass form enclosing an ordinary light bulb, conceived as a table lamp that treats the bulb as a sculptural object. Bulb was added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1969 and remains one of the designs most associated with the company. In 1992 Maurer created Lucellino, a small wall or table light pairing a bare bulb with hand-made goose-feather wings, which became another of his signature pieces. Across its history the company has produced lighting that often incorporates unexpected materials — paper, holograms, LEDs, feathers and printed notes — in pieces such as the Zettel'z hanging lamp and the Birds Birds Birds chandelier. Production has been based in Munich, where the studio combines handcraft with newer lighting technology, and the work spans limited installations, commissions and series-produced lamps. Ingo Maurer died in 2019, and the company has continued to operate under the Ingo Maurer name, maintaining and developing the existing collection. Its products are used in residential interiors, hospitality and cultural projects, and are sold internationally through design retailers, showrooms and lighting specialists. The company occupies a distinctive position between art and product design, and its pieces are frequently discussed in the context of design collecting as well as everyday lighting.