LEDs are helping our homes and buildings become lean, green, energy-saving machines, but they're also slimming down our lamps. Gone are the bulky shades and clunky sconces of incandescent lighting; today's lamps are stick-thin and brighter than ever.

Mantis Desk Lamp by Vertigo Bird: Pale maple wood and blue aluminum tubing intersect to form the angles of this slender desk lamp with concealed LEDs. Height and position can be adjusted by moving the blue tube. www.vertigo-bird.com

Magic Parete Model A by Catellani & Smith: A nickel-plated metal support with a magnet holds the lamp’s nickel-plated copper LED stick in place. www.catellanismith.com

Clamp Table Lamp by Pablo Designs: The San Francisco-based designer combined LED technology with a sustainable wood body to create an infinitely adjustable clip-on lamp. www.pablodesigns.com

Channel Reading Lamp by Rich, Brilliant, Willing: New York’s darling design trio created the Channel collection of low-energy, high output lamps that still come across as strong, slender, and natural-another trio everyone can get behind. www.richbrilliantwilling.com

Faggio Floor Lamp by Darfon Lighting: While some wooden lamps aim at softer takes on task lighting, the Faggio (“beech” in Italian) is an abstract, modular version of a tree whose shape and size can be expanded by adding more aluminum modules. www.darfonlighting.com