Leave it to Salone to give us shapes in design previously unseen, incarnations heretofore unimagined. Debuting this year at that event and in this category of the truly formally novel… the Paddle Collection of Adjustable LED Task Lights by Benjamin Hubert for Fabbian. The clever desk lamp doesn’t just borrow the intriguing flat and pseudo-circular shape of a paddle, it also incorporates its impressive functionality. This is to say that this is no simple splashing paddle like that of a beaver tail, but rather the fully rotational, mobile, and nubile implement of an expert oarsman.

Paddle Lamp. Designed by Benjamin Hubert for Fabbian.

Multiple Adjustments for More Focused Illumination

The lamp’s business end is ever so slightly convex, thus giving just a hint of downward projection to the long-lived LED lights housed within. That’s a nice touch and it makes for a good-looking lamp, but the real story of Paddle is its projecting handle and hinged central mount. This feature—just as with a rower’s skiff—allows 360 degree adjustability through multiple spatial axes. The short way of assessing this quality is to say that it makes it easy to get the light anywhere you want it, without a moment’s hesitation.

Paddle’s handsome head is formed from pressed aluminum. The Lamp body is available in oak, ash timber, or texture lacquered aluminum.

About the Manufacturer: Italy’s Fabbian, or Fabbain Illuminazione Spa is one of the world’s foremost lighting brands. Their impressive numbers bear this out: 46 years of R&D; 90 technicians and workers to manufacture each product; a 6,000 sq. meter manufacturing facility (in Venice); 450 different lighting products; and 220,000 fixtures sold world-wide every year. That last number is easily justified by Fabbian’s consistent demonstration of originality and high style, as seen in such stunning and unorthodox pieces as the Medusa Pendant Lamp, the Cubetto D28 Wal-Mounted Sconce, and the Riccio Suspension Lamp. Fabbian consistently works with renowned designers including Francesco Lucchese, Marc Sadler, and Paolo De Lucchi.