At the January 2015 Maison & Objet fair in Paris, Brokis is debuting Whistle, a new pendant light by Lucie Koldova. Whistle is one of the nicknames glassblowers give to the cane they use to blow glass. It’s a rustic and solid tool that Koldova hollows out, revealing the full transparency of its interior with which she invents a hybrid form filled with the energy from the blowing and the light.
Whistle is a simple luminous stroke, wrapped in a diaphanous shade embracing its vertical drop revealing it in its best light.
The result is an equally technical and fun looking system, the skeletal electrics of which are highlighted by an essential and efficient choice of colours like the range of an offset printer. The seemingly simple implementation belies the expertise of Brokis for this entirely handmade series produced with industrial precision. The Czech producer will be present at the forthcoming Euroluce this April with a series of innovative items for the home as well as the contract market.
Whistle comes in crystal transparent or smoke grey. Spotlight colours are white, black, grey, magenta, menthol and yellow.
ALL ABOUT BROKIS
Brokis was founded in 2006, immediately creating a niche amongst contemporary firms by offering minimalistic lights that are exclusively glass, with transparent and innovative designs leading the way with the iconic table lamp Muffin (now over 2,000 sold per year). A single bulb, placed on a wooden base, like an explosion encapsulated in a disproportionate spherical glass cover later to become one of the hallmarks of the young Czech designer Lucie Koldova, now artistic director of the brand.
Initially a response to the 2008 crisis, it was paramount to reposition the expertise of Bohemian glassblowers in an ultra-contemporary country where the players are not in such large numbers. Brokis as in “broki,” a Latino slang term used in New York by young people to hail each other, the equivalent of “bro” in black communities. A fruit of the double Czech and Puerto Rican origin of the founder, Jan Rabell, “broki” is also a term that refers to a small decorative glass piece among Bohemian glassblowers.
In four years, Brokis became a leading brand in contemporary lighting, blowing its products in the same factory as Flos, Artemide, Foscarini and Louis Poulsen in the Czech countryside 150 km from Prague. Unique expertise bordering industry and crafts, each Brokis piece passes between the hands of 25 people. Pieces comprise three successive layers of glass, the ultra-transparency of which imposes an inevitable quality control, as faults are made visible by the design. With nine ovens and 72 people, the Brokis production site is currently undergoing expansion, devising products to recycle the glass offcuts dismissed by the principal line that were previously discarded.
Next April, the brand will unveil its first collection devoted to the contract market in Euroluce. An outdoor line is on the cards to extend the range and turn the start-up into a veritable all-round lighting company capable of taking the limelight.
ALL ABOUT LUCI KOLDOVA
Born in 1983, Koldova is a prominent designer based in Prague and Paris. Her work, ever pure and charismatic, focusSes on furniture, glass sculptures, timeless lighting collections and objects of desire; her portfolio ranges from daily-use products, poetic gallery objects, and limited series pieces to conceptual design. In 2013, Koldova became the art director of Brokis.
For more info, visit www.brokis.cz