Italian design firm Pallucco produces some inventive and imaginative lighting, including Fortuny, a standing lamp that looks like a cross between an eyeball and a photographer's umbrella, and Glow, a series of lamps that looks like a collection of paper cranes. Into this realm of "functional irrationality" comes Coral, "a range of lights with a uniquely shaped modular element which is reminiscent of a branch of coral."

Coral. Designed by Pallucco.

Available through New York's Lepere, Coral is like pendant jewelry-a burst of aquatic wonder. Constructed of matte lacquered metal and injection-molded polycarbonate, Coral features a lampshade of 120 branches that is reminiscent of the work of Ernst Haeckel, whose turn-of-the-century illustrations of sea creatures revel in symmetry and color. Pallucco's oceanic lamp acknowledges its organic inspiration: "The module repeats itself like a fractal (a geometrical shape which is repeated throughout its structure in different sizes) and grows following the principle of nature-from simplicity to complexity."

The Coral Suspension Light is particularly captivating. When the sphere of shoots floats over the room, it emphasizes the weightlessness of underwater organisms. And the colors will have you spellbound: white with luminous orange, ivory with red, or black gray with ivory. The color of the supporting structure matches the lamp's diffuser, making the internal skeleton recede so that the coral branches remain the focus of attention. For customers in the United States, see Coral at the Lepere showroom: "In the heart of an iconic district, furniture, rugs, lighting and accessories rooted in tradition and based in the future, rise up to the Flatiron."

Via Interior Design.