Pablo Designs fuses technology and aesthetics for the ‘Carousel’ collection

The United States-based studio Pablo Designs founded by industrial designer Pablo Pardo seamlessly combined lighting designs with technology to create the Carousel collection, with lamps topped with a low-setting wireless charging tray surface for mobile devices that give off a warm, glare-free illumination. Carousel symbolises a distinctively hybrid approach to what a personal light could potentially be. Ideal for desktop or bedside use, it is a combination of innovation, aesthetics and functionality. “Our team has worked tirelessly to create products that not only look beautiful but which also serve a purpose in our daily lives. We believe that good design should enhance the way we live and interact with our surroundings,” shares the Venezuelan-born designer.

Out of the three lamp designs comprising the collection, the 'Carousel' floor lamp won the 2023 AZ Awards citing its innovative design. The products' low-profile LED light module is covertly tucked away beneath a tray, suspended atop a clear, fluted acrylic cylinder diffuser, radiating mesmerising light patterns onto the surface below. To accommodate a variety of mobile devices, the collection features a convenient tray surface with two wireless charging zones and a USB-C charging connection. It also offers warm, indirect lighting from a flat panel LED light source with full-range dim adjustment to suit moods. Its spinning steel tray comes in matte white, terracotta, and black finishes, while its base diffuser is offered in clear and bronze tints, setting a colour palette that is versatile and minimalistic. The products come in three variations: the table model comes in 11 centimetres and 17.5 centimetres, whereas the floor lamp is approximately triple the height of the table lamps, going up to 46 centimetres.

Since 1993, Pablo Designs has been developing high-quality, distinctive products that combine style and function effortlessly. The practical product designs comprising the Carousel collection provide spaces with a much-needed dose of calm and ambient light. Carousel embodies Pardo's human-centred creative ethos, of creating 'beautiful, sparse, utilitarian lighting that fosters harmonious relationships between people and their environments,' through its distinctive fusion of cutting-edge technology, warm materials, and geometric rigour. As a result, the collection provides expertly engineered technical lighting for indoor spaces. According to the lighting designer, Carousel's LED solutions accommodate the comfort and ease of the user's experience, while also being environment friendly in terms of energy consumption.

Adopting the philosophy of 'less is more', the product designers at Pablo Designs constantly question design conventions to create practical solutions that are reduced to their foundation. All of the studio's creations have common values of permanence and sustainability, in a bid to reject the modern disposable mentality. The goal of the founder and lead designer at Pablo Designs is to develop objects that strengthen the bond between products, their users, and their surroundings. The studio is able to produce one-of-a-kind, enduring designs with the capacity to transform any setting by blending the highest technical sensitivities with the most suitable material palette.

Text by Ria Jha