Foscarini designerlights rank definitively among the avant-garde of modern Italian lighting design. Barely any other manufacturer offers such an opulent number of unconventional, innovative lamps and lighting objects.
By using the newest materials available, Foscarini designer lights vary in color, diffusion and quality of light and add a new emotional element to the illumination of rooms.
Founded on the Venetian island Murano in 1981, the history of Foscarini has begun with blown glass. Initially, Foscarini produced unique mouth-blown glass lights for hotels and businesses mainly in the Far East. However, over the years, through the co-operation with creative designers the product portfolio and range of materials used has expanded to include satin-finished glass, polyethylene, wood and aluminium, as well as painted materials such as an exclusive textured glass and Kevlar® or carbon fibre composite. This change of design philosophy has begun in 1983 with two new light collections designed by today's company owners Carlo Urbinati and Alessandro Vecchiato. Ever since Foscarini co-operates with leading personalities from the world of design as well as young talents combining work experience and creative power.
Confirming its vocation as a talent scout, Foscarini kicks off the Foscarini Lab project in 2007, a series of workshops by invitation only dedicated to graduates in industrial design, whose purpose is to develop projects with characteristics that make them suitable for industrialization by the company.
Among the best known Foscarini designer lights, one will find those made of unusual materials and with surprising shapes. For instance the Foscarini Havana series designed by Jozeph Forakis in 1993, which is also part of the permanent collection of the 'Museum of Modern Art’ in New York.  These cigar-shaped lights would have been too heavy if made from glass which is why Foscarini and Forakis relied on yellow polyethylene and transparent polypropylene. One of the latest Foscarini designer lights, the Foscarini Tress by Marc Sadler, shows anew the company's dedication to innovation. The series is made from interwoven threads that have been soaked in resin and cast in a long cylinder. The texture of the material is reminiscent of traditional woven fibres as for baskets. The lamp’s random interwoven patterns create distinctive shadows that are cast outwards. The idea was to interweave light and material through contrasting bands of full and empty space, diversely distributed depending on how the lamp is used. It recalls the warm touch of fabric and creates a highly suggestive visual and tactile sensory effect.