Ligne Roset is one of those furniture brands in Europe with a long history, with roots in 1860s France, where the company was founded selling walking sticks and sunshades. Skip forward to the present day and the 5th generation Roset family are running the company, including Michel Roset who first looked at Melbourne designer Nick Rennie’s profile in 2011.
Roset liked what he saw, in particular the Saldo table, a geometric design in 8mm thick ‘crystal’glass that comes with self adhesive sliders. Within twelve months, the product was launched.
“When the first prototype was made, Mr Roset suggested that they be driven around in the back of a van for the weekend on the cobblestone streets to test the glue strength,”says Rennie. “I find this really exciting as a designer. Something as simple as that just to test how the strength would hold up.”
Following the launch of Saldo in 2012, Ligne Roset put three of Rennie’s products into development for a 2013 launch, including the Mushroom Lamp, Atelier Lamp and Chart Rug. The Mushroom Lamps was also an existing design – it had been shown in 2002 for Rennie’s first solo exhibition at the Salone Satellite emerging design showcase at the Milan Furniture Fair.
The idea behind the design was to create a light that can never be knocked over, always coming back to the same resting position.
“With the Mushroom Lamp, we were toying with the idea of reworking the size from my original models, but upon receiving my prototypes the decision was made to keep them almost as is,”explains Rennie. “I really believe that actually being able to see them in action and to play with them helped in guaranteeing them a place in the collection.”
More on Ligne Roset and Nick Rennie here.
