Resources
In keeping with the premises of the highly regarded TMM lamp, of which Santa & Cole commissioned a table version from Miguel Milá at the time, Miguel tackled this project with the idea of a shade that rose like a flag up a mast.
In order to reduce the number of sections he replaced wood with metal and the cross-shaped base for a circular one, taking up less space on an already crowded desk. However, he did maintain the ingenious system of using a simple rubber ring to affix the shade at the desired height, and the mechanism whereby the lamp is switched on and off by pulling on the electric cord. A metal washer on the shaft is used for wrapping and directing the cable, and forms an inconspicuous part of the design.
Miguel Milá
A member of the generation of industrial design pioneers in Spain who has seen some of his furniture and lamps become real contemporary classics.
Miguel Milá was born in a Catalan aristocratic family with strong links with the artistic world (his ancestors assigned the Milá House, also known as La Pedrera, to Gaudí), and started working as an interior designer in the architecture studio of his brother Alfonso Milá and Federico Correa. It was the end of the 50s, a time of crisis when Spain hardly knew what industrial design was. There was practically no industry, everything was generally handmade. This framework marked the way Miguel Milá understood design, being sensitive to the pleasure of touching and closer to traditional techniques.
Santa & Cole is an editing company from Barcelona that lives for industrial design.