Estiluz’s New Circ Family Distills Lighting to Its Essentials

Like yin and yang, thesis and antithesis, some of the best design systems negotiate dualisms. Circ, the new lighting family from Spanish purveyor Estiluz, is no exception: Its minimally resolved form pairs fullness and void, and hard and soft materials. The portable lamp links a circular metal handle and (mostly) spherical polyethylene light source at one point. “We started playing with the tangency of the circle and with proportions between the parts,” says Ester Pujol, cofounder of the Barcelona-based Nahtrang Studio, which created Circ. Estiluz requested a battery-powered, outdoor-ready lamp, a brief Pujol says Nahtrang distilled to its essentials: “It was searching for a concept that gave us the form.” But another hackneyed release aimed at peripatetic minimalists Circ is not: The light’s cheeky proportions and “dance and circus” angles (Pujol’s words) direct attention—gently and quite novelly—to its handle, rather than its bulb or shade. “The handle becomes the main part,” Pujol continues, “surprising the user and becoming the identifying piece.” Circ has already evolved into outdoor floor and table lamps and indoor hanging, floor, and wall options. “In the end it became the seed of a big family,” Pujol adds. “We are flirting with some other products.”

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