Tizio is a desk lamp created by

Richard Sapper Richard Sapper (30 May 1932 – 31 December 2015) was a German industrial designer who was based in Milan for much of his career. He is considered to be one of the most influential figures of post-war design. His products typically feature a comb ...

for Artemide in 1972. It was selected for the

Compasso d'Oro The Compasso d'Oro (; ) is an industrial design award originated in Italy in 1954. Initially sponsored by the La Rinascente, a Milanese department store, the award has been organised and managed by the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI ...

industrial design award in 1979. An item of it is part of the collections of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

and of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

. The position and the direction of the bulb can be adjusted; thanks to two

counterweight A counterweight is a weight (object), weight that, by applying an opposite force, provides balance and stability of a machine, mechanical system. The purpose of a counterweight is to make lifting the load faster and more efficient, which saves e ...

s, moving it requires little effort. There are no wires between the base and the lamp: the two parallel arms, connected with

snap fastener A snap fastener, also called snap button, press button, press stud, press fastener, dome fastener, popper, snap and tich (or tich button), is a pair of interlocking discs, made out of a metal or plastic, commonly used in place of traditional butt ...

s, conduct safe 12-volt electricity. The bulb is

halogen The halogens () are a group in the periodic table consisting of six chemically related elements: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), and the radioactive elements astatine (At) and tennessine (Ts), though some authors would ...

, which was previously mainly used in the automotive industry. The Tizio is available in a variety of sizes and colours; the original, and most widely known, is the 50 (referring to the wattage of the bulb) in black. The mid-sized model is the 35, and there is the bedside-sized Micro (20 Watts). Other colours are white, and grey metallic; and, the occasional limited edition in polished aluminium, or titanium-colour. There also is a floorstanding version, the Terra, which consist of a 70-centimeter-high pedestal with the same 11 cm diameter as the lamp's base, with the 50 added on top. The Terra-stand is also available in a 10 cm diameter, matching the 35 model. Recently, an energy-saving LED-powered version of the full-sized model has been added; as has a version of the regular 50 with a horizontally rotatable head, the Plus. The LED and Plus versions are equipped with a dimmer; all other versions have a three-position switch, allowing for off, full, and – approximately – half power. Design changes were made to the head in the nineties – a glass cover, and a thin wire terminating in a small red bead were added. The name ''Tizio'' was given by Ernesto Gismondi, the founder of Artemide, and alludes to , the Italian equivalent of Tom, Dick and Harry. One explanation for the name is that Gismondi hoped to appeal to everyone; another is that Gismondi hoped to convince Sapper to create Caio and Sempronio designs as well.

Bibliography

* Volker Fischer, Hans Höger. ''The Tizio-Light by Richard Sapper''. Art Books International Limited 1997

References

{{Artificial light sources Types of lamp Light fixtures

Bibliography

See also

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