designers. They’re the ones who are looking for products that can make a real contribution to society. It’s an area that attracts me more than conceptual design. In the case of our lamp, the act of levitation is based on a purely visual, aesthetic idea. I’m looking for functional ap-plications at the moment. Give us a hint.The floating part can revolve end-lessly, because there’s no friction in-volved – that’s one property that should spark an idea. Pressing on the floating component is kind of like pressing on a spring, which might be another source of inspira-tion. You can also make and store a digital read-out of the entire opera-tion. I’m thinking of equipment that measures wind direction, for example, or even loudspeakers. We’re talking to several parties with an interest in developing new products.

‘An object hovering in midair instantly stirs the imagination’ Angela

Jansen

What role will you play in develop-ing these products? Do you want to design them?The step from technology to func-tion is mine to take, but I can’t im-plement all the ideas myself. At the Design Academy, my main interests were graphic design and concepts. I’m not a product designer by train-ing. In the overall process we’ve been discussing, I’m the one respon-sible for getting the others parties together. And the lamp?I plan to remain personally involved in the design process of the lamp. We’re preparing a 20-piece collec-tion that Crealev will start selling in January 2008. In addition to the four existing models, people can or-der customized lamps. Ultimately, of course, we’d love to have a light-ing manufacturer mass-produce our design. —www.crealev.com

What’s the story behind the lamp?During my final year at the Design Academy Eindhoven, my dad and I were brainstorming in the car about what I might do after gradua-tion. We decided to develop some-thing together. My father, who stud-ied mechanical engineering and electronics, is a very technical guy. A couple of weeks after our conver-sation in the car, he showed me his initial plan for a new levitation method he’d come up with in his free time. The rest was up to me. After I graduated, we set up a busi-ness and called it Crealev, which stands for Creative Levitation. So the technology was there before the idea for a lamp. What made you apply your dad’s concept to a lamp?Several things. In the first place, I wanted the technology behind the design to be visible. If you try to ex-plain what’s going on, chances are nobody will grasp the idea and its potential right away, but an object hovering in midair instantly stirs the imagination. Illumination fur-ther enhances the magic. Because I didn’t want our product to be a gadget, I gave the lamp a classic shape – a complete contrast to the high-tech system. Last but not least, we wanted a product that would be commercially interesting. The nec-essary technology is still rather ex-pensive, and a lamp is something that many people consider a major purchase. What’s the difference between your method of levitation and similar ideas? Admittedly, there are hundreds of patents on various types of levita-tion technologies. Ours involves an

electronic system that keeps the lev-itating shade in place, and we have a patent on that system. It’s suitable for mass production. It works on different scales. And it’s stable, even though there’s a considerable dis-tance between the base and its levi-tating shade. When you give the shade a slight twirl, for example, it revolves but remains in place.

‘I’m looking for functional applications at the moment’ Angela Jansen

To what extent would you say that the technology has determined the design of the lamp?The system consists of two magnets that constantly repel each other. They relate to each other in a cer-tain way, and the scale of that rela-tionship is variable. Even so, it’s a real challenge to design an object that fits into the resulting frame-work. The most important part of the system is the fact that the top is not only detached from the base but

also interchangeable. That led me to design two models, whose parts can be assembled into four different lamps. I’d also like the distance be-tween base and shade to be varia-ble, which would allow the levitat-ing shade to be lowered and to work as a dimmer. That’s the next step. Do you see other possibilities for this levitation technology in the world of design? It all depends on what you mean by ‘design’, which is such a broad term. Design as it’s taught at the Design Academy Eindhoven is highly conceptual, and the same ap-plies to so-called ‘Dutch design’.Because it plays with clichés, Dutch design is always recognizable. That’s its strength, but it also impos-es restrictions. I’m not hellbent on going down that road.What road does appeal to you?Currently, I’m talking to industrial

HAng In THereAfter graduating from the Design Academy eindhoven, Angela Jansen joined her father in developing loS! – an intriguing lamp with a levitating shade whose technology begs to move beyond lighting. Words Femke de WildPhotos Crealev

Two models provide the basic com-ponents for assembling four different lamps; a slight tap is all that’s needed to set the levitating lampshade revolving endlessly.

Angela Jansen’s loS! lamp features two magnets that constantly repel each other: the magnets are part of an electronic sys-tem – developed and patented by family concern Crealev – that holds the levitating lampshade in place.

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