When Gauthier Poulain was just twelve years old he was accepted into the Institut Saint-Luc de Tournai with hopes of becoming an artist. After graduating from the school in 2002, he practiced his passion for graphics, advertising, interiors, and industrial design through several placements in the industry which have now earned him international acclaim.  Still relatively young, yet seemingly a veteran in the design scene, Poulain’s most recent work comes to life as the Wings Light pendant warms the room in grand LED style.

Wings Light. Designed by Gauthier Poulain.

This Modern Pendant Lamp Appears to Fly: The Wings Light by Gauthier Poulain

Flat pieces of rounded metal appear to peel off of the lamp. The effect creates a plethora of movement using this simple structure in its solid, unwaivering state as if it were an adhesive being stripped of its thin protective layer. Poulain says he connected the separate metal parts with strong magnets and uses a warm white LED-band to light up the “wings” from the inside out. With a soft glow and a rounded look, the light becomes both modern and elegant in its incomplete state.

Back in 2005, Poulain was already beginning to win major design show awards around Europe. By 2007, he was a regular exhibitor at Salone Satellite in Milan, where he has continued to showcase a few new products each year. Poulain continues to change and expand his design scope by designing several development concepts of several large public and commercial projects that include a bar in Brussels and a few organic restaurants in France and Belgium. But when it really comes down to it, his passion for the industrial design of incredible lighting – the poetic kind, he says, which ties man to matter – is what keeps him going strong.

Gauthier Poulain is a designer-extraordinaire whose artistic side beams through his knack for creating purposeful products, interiors of bars and restaurants, as well as furniture for the home and office. Although his vibrant sense of style shines through his pieces time and time again, the understated elegance of each project showcases his maturity and focus on creating objects using the highest quality materials he can find.