George Sowden’s career may span five decades, partnerships with Ettore Sottsass, and some of the Memphis Group’s most memorable chairs, but the Milan-based designer is still learning new things about materials. In 2020, the Memphis founding member was creating a prototype for a new lighting collection and chose to use silicone to model the shade “because it was a quick, precise, and relatively inexpensive way to do it,” he recalls. “By doing this, I discovered that the silicone had an extraordinary quality of light diffusion.”
This unexpected surprise helped jumpstart the SowdenLight Collection, an expressive series of table, floor, and pendant lamps that debuted at this past year’s Milan Design Week and are available at the MoMA Design Store starting today. The range serves as a showpiece for Sowden’s unapologetically bold pops of color, best embodied in each fixture’s contrasting silicone shades. The material, as he notes, allows light to softly and comfortably radiate through, sparking cheerful vibes wherever they’re placed.
