Fabien Cappello is a young designer who has just graduated from the ECAL university of art and design in Lausanne, Switzerland and starts a postgraduate course at the Royal College of Art in London this September.

We have chosen three projects from his portfolio: Sandcast Lamp (top); Wire-Clips Lighting System (above); and Ceiling Mounted Lamp (below).

Below are project descriptions from Cappello:

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Sand Cast Lights

I am my own company

This project was born from a wondering about self-edited products and, at first, was based on the aluminium sandcasting technique. It was a personal choice, for several reasons : it is a ’small industry’, close to craft manufacture, which do not need much investment.

The technique of lost model allows to obtain unique objects by using expanded polystyrene, while remaining a serial process. The model disappears by melting during the manufacture of the object.

In the context of self-editing, and to reduce the number of stages of manufacture, I have chosen some fragments of polystyrene packaging of household electrical appliance to use as a model.

Getting my primary material was as easy as going to look for them in the dustbins of the supermarkets. My purpose was to to take advantage of existing objects, by stealing their formal character from unique use. My role as a designer was to create lamps out of cut, assembled and stuck fragments of packaging, while at the same time keeping in mind the question of lighting.

The last thing needed to reach the end of the process was to mold them. Released from any classic editorial constraint, objects are irregular, details are raw and un-finished. My research aims at a singular expression about the object, and at specific, rather than general qualities of the final result.

Project exhibited during the design parade at the villa Noailles, Hyères, France ; Summer 2006. And currently avalaible for sale at la boutique “107 RIVOLI” of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris.

copyright: ecal / fabien cappello

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Wire-Clip Light System

For my diploma at ecal I have decided to work with wire-clips. Because wire-clips are fantastic standard items: they allow several uses, are easy to fix and be removed, they are mass-manufactured and available in every hardware store.

So I have decided to use these qualities in order to create a lighting system inspired by the way cables are usually constraint together by wire-clips. I find a kind of grooved brass section and discover that by assembling them by three or four it become static. So I’ve created a very easy easy modular systeme composed of three different pieces made out this brass section.

Those three pieces can be attached to each other in diferent position and direction so as to create different models of lamp. (I have also imagine other pieces witch play a role of ’support’: for example legs of the floor-standing lamp or the base of the wall-mounted lamp.)

The range of piece is available with two different light source: a spot for directed light, and a bulb for a concealed lighting. The lamp can be transport and retailed flat before being build by the user.

We can easily imagine creating new models of lamp (the range of lamp can growing) with new support and new function, table lamp, or even whatever lamp…

copyright : ecal / fabien cappello

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Ceiling Mounted Lamp

I was thinking about what could be the simplest and the beautifullest solution for ceiling mounted light. far away from any decoration, the goal of this items is to oriented a simple bulb in direction of the ceiling.

The light become more global thanks to the ceiling reflexion. The aesthetic of this object is close to nothing, the wire and the connecting are still visible. Few light can be placed in a same room in order to create a lighting display.