Creating a visual language for Bocci.
Over the course of 5 years, New Document worked closely with Bocci Creative Director Omer Arbel to create both print ad campaigns and design process videos.
BOCCI 57
57 is an exploration of a technique of making analogous to that used for producing closed cell foam. The process involves trapping voids of air of different sizes and configurations within a glass matrix, yielding a shape loosely referencing a rain cloud. These pockets of air remain invisible when the piece is off, but come alive to reveal an interior universe when the piece is illuminated. By virtue of the fabrication process, each piece made is completely unique from any other piece ever produced.
BOCCI 28 configurator
Combining thousands of photographs and using actual sound bites from the making of the 28, this video was made to promote the 28 Chandelier App which gave customers a change to configure chandelier picking from hundreds of color options.
BOCCI 14
A short story about the 14 series and Bocci's humble beginnings. The design for the 14 series sparked Bocci's working methodology and formed the intense and intimate relationship between design and manufacturing that has become Bocci's ethos.
The 14 series pendant is an articulated, seamed cast glass sphere with a frosted cylindrical void that houses a replaceable low voltage lamp. Individual pendants are visually quite subtle, but gain tremendous strength when multiplied and clustered in large groups. Light interacts with the bubbles and imperfections of the cast glass to produce a glow reminiscent of small candles floating within spheres of water. Cast glass is an organic process, imperfect by nature, and each 14 series pendant is handmade; thus, every piece produced is unique.
The BOCCI Glass Studio
BOCCI 28
28 is an exploration of fabrication process which is part of Bocci's quest for specificity in manufacturing. Instead of designing form, here the intent was to design a system that produces form. 28's result form a method that has loose parameters built into it, which produces a different shape in every iteration of the fabrication procedure. Individual 28 pendants result from a complex glass blowing technique whereby air is intermittently introduced into and then removed from a glass matrix which is intermittently heated and then rapidly cooled. The result is a distorted spherical shape with a composed collection of inner shapes, one of which is made of opaque milk glass and houses a low voltage lamp.
BOCCI 73
BOCCI 21
21 is an exploration of an analog system of making, whereby thin sheets of porcelain are draped over a sandblasted borosilicate glass inverted trumpet diffuser. The thin porcelain skin is allowed to dress over the borosilicate core to create whatever form is most natural to it. This makes a unique shape, of varying size, in every iteration of the fabrication process.
BOCCI 16
BOCCI 19
19 is an exploration of sand casting which is a low fidelity technique used for making metallic objects. The technique involves pressing a shape into sand to create a void, and then roughly pouring molten metal into the void. Some overspill is a by-product of this process, which is, in conventional circumstances, cleaned up after production and refinished.
In this project we explored the expressive possibilities of the overspill. We developed a technique that encourages a generous and unpredictable overspill during production, which occurs along the entire open perimeter of the cast piece, making a unique 'halo' fir every piece fabricated. We chose to use a high copper content brass such that the overspill oxidizes instantly, producing an extremely textured surface that stands in contrast to the interior of the piece, which retains a smooth finish because it does not come in contact with air, and which we hand-polish to a near mirror finish.
BOCCI x Mallett
BOCCI 16 Fairmont
BOCCI Canada House London
BOCCI V&A London
This is a time lapse video of our installation at The Victoria & Albert Museum atrium as part of the London Design Festival. We presented a massive, custom 28.280 chandelier in the main atrium of the museum. The installation, featuring the celebrated 28, descended through the large existing void cutting through the entire length of the V&A Building, with an astonishing height of more than 30 metres. The intent of the installation was twofold; On the one hand, it was a pure celebration of the monumental open height of the building, which uses light to crystallize a powerful phenomenological experience for the viewer. On the other hand it was the most ambitious exploration to date of a novel glass blowing technique. 280 of the 28 pendants hung within a 30 metre vertical drop, suspended by a novel, perhaps awkward and heavy copper suspension system, that had as much presence or more than the glass it supports. The installation continued our research into the process of making, and stands testament to Arbel's remarkable journey as an articulator of form.
Showcased at the V&A main hall from 09.14.203-09.22.2013. The installation can be viewed as part of the public museum visits during the duration of the London Design Festival and will remain until the end of 2013.
BOCCI 28 Colors
The 28 series light fixtures are customizable in over 60 different colors. This video shows a few small drops in the sea of possibilities.