Modern lighting FLOS
Lights with Italian design
The Italian manufacturer Flos has enriched the world of modern design with many iconic luminaires. Flos was founded in 1962 by Dino Gavina and Cesare Cassina. Flos' mission has always been to develop unique and innovative luminaires that combine new design and new technology. Over the years, the company has collaborated with masters of Italian design as well as important international designers.
Introducing the FLOS range
Over the many years of operation, the company has built up a wide range of products. The portfolio includes decorative, architectural, outdoor and custom-made lights of all types: table, pendant, floor, spot or even underwater.
Did you know that in Latin the word Flos means flower?
History of the FLOS brand
1960 - It all started with an idea
Flos was founded in 1962 by Dino Gavina and Cesare Cassina. The origins of Flos began with a great idea: to create lamps that would change the way of life in the Italian market and abroad. But how to change the concept of "lamp"? The company's then CEO , Sergio Gandini , combined the company's ambitious efforts and the creative imagination of the designers, and the brand took its first milestone on the road to success. Sergio Gandini's son, Piero Gandini, led Flos into the 21st century.
From MoMA to the world
In 1972, the most important museum of modern art in America, the MoMA in New York, held an exhibition entitled "Italy - a new domestic landscape", where Flos shone with several pieces (especially by the aforementioned Castiglioni brothers) and gained a firm position among international avant-garde brands. Since the MoMA exhibition, the company's popularity has skyrocketed. During the 1970s and 1980s, the company expanded its production with new plants and opened new branches in Italy and abroad.
1985 - Philipp Starck
Every great success comes from taking risks or from having the courage to play one card. In the mid-1980s, director Sergio Gandini met the young Philipp Starck and accepted his offer to produce Starck's fabulous Arà lamp. Another iconic timeless piece was born.
2000 - From one millennium to another
Under the leadership of Piero Gandini, son of the previous director, Flos focused mainly on the harmony between iconic designs, craftsmanship and mass production technology. However, the fundamental step towards change came with the realisation that modern objects can be a form of expression in as many stylistic interpretations as there are languages in the world. And so Piero Gandini called on the most promising talents in the field of international design: from the futurist Marc Newson to the minimalist Jasper Morrison to the refined Konstantin Grcic. Gradually, a new identity for the company emerged, one that was able to cope with the additional obstacles that the new millennium brought.
"Today, as never before, we must find a synthesis of emotions, technology,poetry, needs, messages, aesthetic and political values. It is not only technology that is changing, but society itself and we with it.
Designers for FLOS
Over the years, the company has had the privilege of working with both Italian design masters and important international designers, such as the Italian architects brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglionio, who have created many award-winning designs for the Flos brand. In the last decade, new classic design projects have been created under the brand's banner with designers such as Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Philippe Starck and Jasper Morrison.
