The lighting designs of Tom Dixon continually surprise and enchant. This past year, we at 3rings have (dis)covered his shiny, bell-shaped Void pendants; his creative, star-shaped lights from Design Miami (made of the iconic Veuve Cliquot packaging); and his industrial, pressed glass Bead and Top suspension lamps. Now Dixon is partnering with Philips Lumiblade to illustrate the possibilities of their OLEDs.

Flat Lamps. Designed by Tom Dison for Philips Lumiblade.

But it isn’t exactly a light that Dixon has designed–it’s actually a collection of super thin light bulbs entitled Flat Lamps. Meant to highlight the energy-saving characteristics of the Philips Organic Light Emitting Diodes, Dixon’s Flat Lamp “is a typically direct and succinct interpretation of this new exciting technology.” Available in three shapes–Strip, Square, and Round–these “bulbs” (though it seems a shame to reduce them to such a word) showcase the mass-market possibilities of Lumiblade OLED technology.

Recently on view at Superstudio Piu in Milan as part of Salone del Mobile, Flat Lamps should do a lot to bring attention to the everyday uses of the relatively new Philips technology (I know OLED is still new to many readers because of comments that say things like “What?”). Dixon, however, is quite familiar with Lumiblade at this point: “Our collaboration with Philips has been nothing short of illuminating: being able to work on the cutting edge of technology in a field that has such a big impact on people's everyday lives. For us it's a dream project where the objective is to work on ways of reducing energy consumption in the very near future whilst illuminating spaces in a more attractive and more functional way." All that’s left to do is for Dixon, as well as other designers, to integrate the Flat Lamp OLED light bulbs into some multi-faceted lighting–most especially, into unusually scintillating modern chandeliering.