Design Duo Vantot Wants to Reinvent How We Use LEDs

Visitors to this year’s SaloneSatellite might have spotted a set of metallic, V-shaped fixtures delicately arrayed on thin wires. The striking design actually conceals a neat trick—the exposed wires both stabilize the luminaire units and power them. Dubbed Current Curtain, the product comes from Vantot, an Eindhoven-based studio founded by Design Academy Eindhoven graduates Esther Jongsma and Sam van Gurp. It is the latest in the pair’s sculptural experiments with LEDs. In 2016, the studio designed their Polar Play fixture, which is entirely made of conductive copper that powers a series of LED lights without the need for wires. In 2017, they upped the ante with Current Currents, a modular system that uses charged wires as scaffolding for lighting units. Current Curtain updates this latter set, offering stainless steel and aluminum finishes in addition to the original copper.