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LIGHT, DESIGNER TYPOGRAPHY
THE LIGHT
The IQ light™ system was designed in 1972 by Danish designer Holger Strøm, who was then working at the Kilkenny Design Workshops, Ireland.
He was originally asked to create a modular construction for a cylindrical and a spherical lamp, both to appear to be the same size, to be used in a Christmas display.
"I constructed them from triangular modules, which I glued together, and by using an equal number of modules for the sphere and the cylinder, they did actually appear to be the same size. It was just a Christmas decoration, but I couldn't completely forget the idea. I wanted to make it with a mechanical assembly system, and with identical modules.
"I used a rhomboid shape because, of the classic geometric shapes, it's one that can give a most round form. I also realised that by giving the module a curl on each corner I could hook them together, but the result was a bit loose and floppy. So I lengthened the top and bottom of the rhombus, that gave them tension when they were hooked together, and it was that tension I needed for the lamp to hold together."
Through the seventies it was manufactured by Kilkenny Illuminations Ltd, who sold around 20,000 lights worldwide. In 1999 IQ light™ was relaunched by Bald & Bang aps, Copenhagen.
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 index
variations
how to
geometry
IQ light™ system
 history
links
www.iqlight.com
Design and manufacture:
Holger Strøm, Denmark
hs@iqlight.com
Made in Denmark
Sole distributors:
Bald & Bang
Rømersgade 7, st.
DK-1362 Copenhagen K
Denmark
tel +45 3336 0776
fax +45 7021 3030
www.bald-bang.com
e-mail:
headquarters@bald-bang.com
Copyright © 1973 and 2000 Holger Strøm.
TM = Trademarks of Holger Strøm.
Website design: balsko.com
webmaster@iqlight.com
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LIGHT, DESIGNER, TYPOGRAPHY, TOP
THE DESIGNER
Since the late sixties, Holger Strøm has worked primarily in the field of corrugated card packaging design. As well as packaging, he has also designed exhibition systems, furniture and toys, all manufactured from corrugated card, and has worked on the development of parametric CAD systems for box design. He lives with his wife and daughter in Birkerød, Denmark, where he runs a packaging design studio.
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LIGHT, DESIGNER, TYPOGRAPHY, TOP
TYPOGRAPHY
The original 1972 IQ light™ logo and packaging graphics were designed by Damien Harrington, and used the font Futura Black, a typeface created in 1930 by Paul Renner. You can read a review of the 1998 biography, Paul Renner: The Art of Typography on the U&lc site, and another review of the book is on the typebooks.org site.
In the mid-seventies Futura Black had a starring role in the opening titles of science fiction TV show Space 1999.
space1999.net has details of the various fonts used on the show here.
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