Oluce
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Established in 1945 by the master Giuseppe Ostuni, Oluce is the oldest contemporary Italian lighting design company still active today. As early as 1951, Oluce was noticed at the IX Triennale in Milan, in the lighting section directed by Achille, Livio and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, for an indirect incandescent luminator designed by Franco Buzzi. Following this positive launch the company quickly reached an international audience. At the end of the 50’s, thanks to Joe Colombo, Oluce took a more pronounced revolutionary slant. Colombo was seeking a receptive environment for his visionary and audacious designs, such as Coupè, which are still icons today. Marco Zanuso also created many of Oluce’s masterpieces including the Model 275 table lamp, the Fresnel Lens series, and the Spider group which in 1967 won the first Compasso d’oro award for Oluce. In the early 70’s a new and important era had begun at Oluce, coinciding with the transfer of ownership from Ostuni to the Verderi family, and dominated by one of the great masters of Italian design Vico Magistretti. For many years, Magistretti was art director and chief designer of the company, conferring his unmistakable stamp and a legacy of worldwide recognition upon the company. Lester, Pascal, Dim, Sonora, Snow, and especially Atollo - all became icons. At the start of the ‘90s, it was the rigor of the emergent Swiss designer Hannes Wettstein which characterised the company’s style. Finally, in 1995 Oluce took a different tack under the art direction of Marco Romanelli, which bolstered its international success and the collection’s critical acclaim. The new formula put the focus on expressing highly diverse personal idioms, and in particular those of leading contemporary designers, such as the Englishman Sebastian Bergne, the Swiss Hans Peter Weidmann, and the Italian Francesco Rota. Oluce’s collection continues to grow and evolve, underpinned by a passion for technology and all that it envisions.
