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With a background in Silversmithing and Metalwork, Tom Kirk’s dramatic pendants and chandeliers are truly show-stopping. Having been featured widely in the international design press and been included in publications such as Designing the 21st Century and 1000 Lights, Tom Kirk is an important name in contemporary lighting design. Kirk’s designs reflect over a decade’s experience in manufacturing processes and we caught up with him to ask 10 big questions… With a background in Silversmithing and Metalwork, Tom Kirk’s dramatic pendants and chandeliers are truly show-stopping. Having been featured widely in the international design press and been included in publications such as Designing the 21st Century and 1000 Lights, Tom Kirk is an important name in contemporary lighting design. Kirk’s designs reflect over a decade’s experience in manufacturing processes and we caught up with him to ask 10 big questions…
1. You designed the Facet pendant and wall lights for innermost. Great job! What inspired you?
The lights were originally adapted from some designs for Christmas window displays, which were never realized. The idea was to create a surface that reflected and bounced the light internally and externally, in as many directions as possible.
2. Who would you invite to your dream designer dinner party? (Let’s call it your ‘innerparty’..)
Too many to choose from so I’d have to say the designers who originally piqued my interest in the late ‘80s:- Philippe Starck, Richard Sapper, Achille Castiglioni, Ingo Maurer…
3. What is your favorite piece of architecture?
The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
4. What would you name as the most useful piece of tech? Or alternatively the most pointless..?
Bluetooth / wireless technology [most useful]
5. If you could take any found object and make it into a lamp, what would it be?
Flotsam or jetsam/ something washed up on a beach
6. What’s your favorite object from childhood?
A mysterious wooden box from India- a gift from my grandparent
7. What’s the funniest or weirdest thing a client has ever asked for or said at a meeting?
Somebody always mentions Only Fools and Horses- when Del and Rodney are hired to clean some chandeliers…
8. At innermost we are big fans of the Negroni… What’s your favorite cocktail?
Caipirinha
9. What’s the last thing you designed?
Other than lighting, a domestic shoe storage rack
10. If you could choose your teachers at Fantasy College – who would you choose to be taught by?
Grace Jones as course leader, Freddie Mercury as a tutor and Heath Robinson as a technician.
