Case Study

Hem is an independent design brand and platform producing imaginative designs of obsessive quality. The brand creates objects that offer new perspectives, invite interpretation and inspire conversation.

Alphabeta (2015) is a set of modular pendant lamps that can be customised online. The Alphabeta process is inspired by the way letters combine to form words. The shades come in eight different shapes, each of which is available in its own colour, as well as in black and white versions. Twenty-four different configurations can therefore be created by combining top and bottom shades, with the potential for thousands more when four pendants are combined.

As a neologism does, Alphabeta Floor lamp (2018) becomes part of the Alphabeta vocabulary. Like the pendants, the Floor lamp can be customised combining both the top and bottom shades from a choice of eight shapes and various colours. The lamp has an extendable arm and allows to modify the direction of the light, providing bi-directional illumination from above and below.

The Hai (2014) family is composed of a lounge chair and an ottoman. The two get their name and look from the whale shark called “Hai” in Finnish. The lounge chair sits on a light metal structure and features a gracefully curved padded backrest and armrests. The ottoman, also on metal legs, is elegant and minimal. Hai is aimed mainly for online retail, for this reason it has been projected with the folding forward backrest to make the armchair more compact for shipping, diminishing its transportation footprint.