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Madame Figaro
04/2009
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Grand Designs
06/2008
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Total Lighting
05/2008
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Lighting UK 05/2006
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Light Germany
04/2006 Interview
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Press inquiries:
W H I T E Communications
Sophia Giarmeniti
Osterwaldstraße 1
80805 München
Tel. +49 89 360 766 74
giarmeniti@white.de
www.white.de
Press List
Madame Figaro 04/2009
Grand Designs 06/2008
AD France 04/2008
AD France 12/2007
Le Monde Paris 12/2007
Hotel Objekte 11/2007
AD Italy 11/2007
Elle Deco France 11/2007
AD France 03/2007
Lighting UK 05/2006
Light Germany 04/2006 Interview Light Germany 02/2006
Financial Times London 04/2006
"How to spend it"
Elle Decoration Germany 5/05
"Trendsetter"
W H I T E Communications
Sophia Giarmeniti
Osterwaldstraße 1
80805 München
Tel. +49 89 360 766 74
giarmeniti@white.de
www.white.de
Press List
Madame Figaro 04/2009
Grand Designs 06/2008
AD France 04/2008
AD France 12/2007
Le Monde Paris 12/2007
Hotel Objekte 11/2007
AD Italy 11/2007
Elle Deco France 11/2007
AD France 03/2007
Lighting UK 05/2006
Light Germany 04/2006 Interview Light Germany 02/2006
Financial Times London 04/2006
"How to spend it"
Elle Decoration Germany 5/05
"Trendsetter"
Interview Light Magazine 04/2007
The company Windfall GmbH is one of the most recent – and at the same time one of the most successful – companies to be founded in the German lighting segment. It hasn't been two years yet that the designer Roel Haagmans and the interior designer Clarissa Dorn founded the company in Munich: Contemporary Crystal Lighting. Their business is contemporary, advanced, and innovative crystal luminaires: that's what the two newcomers, who have become successfully established with their impressive and fascinating creations at an absolutely top-class segment of the lighting segment, have so successfully concentrated on. Stefan Volkamer, a free-lance journalist from Starnberg, Germany, presents the company by conducting the first interview with this team, on behalf of the trade journal LICHT.
Stefan Volkamer (SV):
Clarissa Dorn and Roel Haagmans: since you founded your company in the autumn of 2004, you have repeatedly put your business in the spotlight of attention by creation of spectacular luminaires for the area of exclusive furnishings. No one of import seems to be able to ignore your light products: your clients include top labels from the fashion scene such as Rena Lange, leading hotels including the Sofitel in Budapest, prominent architects such as David Chipperfield, well-known interior architects and designers, as well as distinguished businesspeople, top-level managers, and bankers. Windfall has proved extremely successful in its development, and has set new accents on the lighting market.
Clarissa Dorn (CD):
Hum: I must agree: now and then it looks that way. Sometimes we ourselves are amazed at the great interest shown in our chandeliers, on the international level as well. And this has applied not only for our individual project developments – which we have designed and realized in collaboration with architects and lighting designers – but also for our luminaires that we market through retailers.
SV:
You are probably thinking about one of your most successful luminaires: the crystal chandeliers with hand-sewn, coloured lampshades made of fabric.
Roel Haagmans (RH):
Yes: our product SCARLETT. These chandeliers are tremendously versatile. They match most pleasingly both in classical as well as in ultra-modern interiors. Each shade is hand-sewn, and each chandelier is custom-crafted in form and colour.
CD:
It’s great – English DJs as well as oriental Princesses beautify their homes with our SCARLETTS. And this of course is fine for us.
SV:
Speaking of crystals. You use only Swarovski crystals in your creations. Is that right?
RH:
That’s right. Even though we could theoretically use alternative manufacturers, the quality of Swarovski Strass crystals is unbeatable. And the untless-facetted play with light that they produce is perfectly suited for our modern designs.
SV:
You offer your clients not only ready-to-use, mass-produced luminaires such as SCARLETT and HELLBOB, but also customized solutions that you develop yourselves in close collaboration with architects and developers.
CD:
The term “mass-produced luminaires ” is not in fact correct. We craft all of our luminaires with the greatest of care by hand, and we exactly check all their individual components. Each of these products is a unique creation in itself: one which documents our approach to modern crystal chandeliers. But our work is primarily directed to individual, customized solutions that we implement in close collaboration with architects and planners. We orient our efforts here basically to the concepts and the possibilities of our clients. What are their budgetary constraints? What kind of architectural impression do their rooms make? Do we formally integrate our creations, or do we consciously separate them? Should or should not our light also convey and/or accentuate the content of our customers’ brand values? Many such questions arise during the preliminary stages of the project. Take, for example, our product LOOP for Rena’s flagship store. First of all, we had to develop from scratch the entire interior construction of this luminaire. Our next task was to decide how we would install the 20,000 individual crystals in such a way as to present a crystal chandelier, made of precious and costly materials: one with self-contained and harmonic elegance, and one which still satisfies all the required technical specifications.
LOOP is almost a crystal installation in its own right. Before a client is ready for such an impressive project, he or she will naturally have to possess a great deal of imagination, and a good bit of daring as well! Even though our designs always appear first in computer visualization – it’s only later, when the chandelier is finally installed, and thousands of crystals diffract the light: only then can you truly realize what it means to experience such a chandelier close-up.
SV:
Have you been successful in foreign countries as well?
RH:
Absolutely. We receive inquiries from all the realms of all the countries on God’s earth. And these are all highly extraordinary, highly choice projects: for example, the Sofitel project in Budapest, where we dramatically staged lighting for the hotel restaurant with our JEWEL BOX. Once a project is completed, we usually get knock-on inquiries from architects – as well as private people – who are fascinated and who also want to simply be bewitched by the light from our products.
SV:
Do you have to be really rich to fulfil the dreams of light that you promise?
RH:
Well, our luminaires are not oriented to bargain-hunters. The Swarovski crystal glass that we use is absolutely of the finest, select quality. The crystal alone represents significant value. For the rest of our chandelier components, we insist on only the very best in material quality. And neither of us accepts compromises when it comes to the craftsmanship that goes into the production of our products. In addition, we don’t produce our products somewhere in India or China, or elsewhere in the world. We manufacture our luminaires only in Germany in Austria: it’s only here that we find the quality and the care, and the craftsmanship, that we value so highly. Our clients – whether private persons or companies – not only want perfect light: they want to experience permanent and always changing pleasure from their luminaires.
SV:
How is your marketing and distribution organized? How would I approach you if I wanted one of your products?
CD:
Roel is primarily responsible for the areas of design and engineering. My main tasks involve marketing, distribution, and the procurement of new business. We market our luminaires that are more of a series-production nature – such as SCARLETT, HELLBOB, and LITTLE BALANCE – through a small and carefully selected circle of top retailers. These include, for example, the specialists München Leuchtet and Electum (both in Munich), SCALA in Hamburg, and Thomas Herrendorf in Berlin. These are people who are not only well established, but who are also extremely flexible and who are prepared to accept and to promote new ideas. It is essential that these partners not only understand our philosophy, but that they also are willing to actively implement it in their own activities. After all: making and selling lovely creations brings joy to others. And that’s our prime mission.
RH:
She’s right. We want to enthuse people with our light, and to incorporate them as well into our dreams. Trying new things, living and enjoying our ideas, and putting them into practice – that’s what we’re trying for. Our partners think the same way: people from commerce and business, as well as architects and lighting designers. And this is one of the essential reasons for our success.
SV:
One last question. What do you love the most in your luminaires?
RH:
I love to find extraordinary and extravagant ideas and to realize them in surprising forms and chandelier types – and to try new approaches and ways in such a classical segment such as crystal chandeliers. This is also how we arrived at our product HELLBOB, for which I developed entirely new technical systems. And this is the way to create floating crystalline spatial structures: crystalline rooms, you could say. This has always been my dream and goal.
SV:
And you, Ms. Dorn?
CD:
I always had a soft spot for the realization of baroque resplendence and ornamentation. Our chandeliers therefore come very close to my concept of beauty, and they simply put me in a good mood: morning, noon, and night.
SV:
I feel the same way. Ms. Dorn, Mr. Haagmans, I thank you for this pleasant discussion, and I wish you continued success in your efforts.
RH:
And we thank you for this interview as well.
The company Windfall GmbH is one of the most recent – and at the same time one of the most successful – companies to be founded in the German lighting segment. It hasn't been two years yet that the designer Roel Haagmans and the interior designer Clarissa Dorn founded the company in Munich: Contemporary Crystal Lighting. Their business is contemporary, advanced, and innovative crystal luminaires: that's what the two newcomers, who have become successfully established with their impressive and fascinating creations at an absolutely top-class segment of the lighting segment, have so successfully concentrated on. Stefan Volkamer, a free-lance journalist from Starnberg, Germany, presents the company by conducting the first interview with this team, on behalf of the trade journal LICHT.
Stefan Volkamer (SV):
Clarissa Dorn and Roel Haagmans: since you founded your company in the autumn of 2004, you have repeatedly put your business in the spotlight of attention by creation of spectacular luminaires for the area of exclusive furnishings. No one of import seems to be able to ignore your light products: your clients include top labels from the fashion scene such as Rena Lange, leading hotels including the Sofitel in Budapest, prominent architects such as David Chipperfield, well-known interior architects and designers, as well as distinguished businesspeople, top-level managers, and bankers. Windfall has proved extremely successful in its development, and has set new accents on the lighting market.
Clarissa Dorn (CD):
Hum: I must agree: now and then it looks that way. Sometimes we ourselves are amazed at the great interest shown in our chandeliers, on the international level as well. And this has applied not only for our individual project developments – which we have designed and realized in collaboration with architects and lighting designers – but also for our luminaires that we market through retailers.
SV:
You are probably thinking about one of your most successful luminaires: the crystal chandeliers with hand-sewn, coloured lampshades made of fabric.
Roel Haagmans (RH):
Yes: our product SCARLETT. These chandeliers are tremendously versatile. They match most pleasingly both in classical as well as in ultra-modern interiors. Each shade is hand-sewn, and each chandelier is custom-crafted in form and colour.
CD:
It’s great – English DJs as well as oriental Princesses beautify their homes with our SCARLETTS. And this of course is fine for us.
SV:
Speaking of crystals. You use only Swarovski crystals in your creations. Is that right?
RH:
That’s right. Even though we could theoretically use alternative manufacturers, the quality of Swarovski Strass crystals is unbeatable. And the untless-facetted play with light that they produce is perfectly suited for our modern designs.
SV:
You offer your clients not only ready-to-use, mass-produced luminaires such as SCARLETT and HELLBOB, but also customized solutions that you develop yourselves in close collaboration with architects and developers.
CD:
The term “mass-produced luminaires ” is not in fact correct. We craft all of our luminaires with the greatest of care by hand, and we exactly check all their individual components. Each of these products is a unique creation in itself: one which documents our approach to modern crystal chandeliers. But our work is primarily directed to individual, customized solutions that we implement in close collaboration with architects and planners. We orient our efforts here basically to the concepts and the possibilities of our clients. What are their budgetary constraints? What kind of architectural impression do their rooms make? Do we formally integrate our creations, or do we consciously separate them? Should or should not our light also convey and/or accentuate the content of our customers’ brand values? Many such questions arise during the preliminary stages of the project. Take, for example, our product LOOP for Rena’s flagship store. First of all, we had to develop from scratch the entire interior construction of this luminaire. Our next task was to decide how we would install the 20,000 individual crystals in such a way as to present a crystal chandelier, made of precious and costly materials: one with self-contained and harmonic elegance, and one which still satisfies all the required technical specifications.
LOOP is almost a crystal installation in its own right. Before a client is ready for such an impressive project, he or she will naturally have to possess a great deal of imagination, and a good bit of daring as well! Even though our designs always appear first in computer visualization – it’s only later, when the chandelier is finally installed, and thousands of crystals diffract the light: only then can you truly realize what it means to experience such a chandelier close-up.
SV:
Have you been successful in foreign countries as well?
RH:
Absolutely. We receive inquiries from all the realms of all the countries on God’s earth. And these are all highly extraordinary, highly choice projects: for example, the Sofitel project in Budapest, where we dramatically staged lighting for the hotel restaurant with our JEWEL BOX. Once a project is completed, we usually get knock-on inquiries from architects – as well as private people – who are fascinated and who also want to simply be bewitched by the light from our products.
SV:
Do you have to be really rich to fulfil the dreams of light that you promise?
RH:
Well, our luminaires are not oriented to bargain-hunters. The Swarovski crystal glass that we use is absolutely of the finest, select quality. The crystal alone represents significant value. For the rest of our chandelier components, we insist on only the very best in material quality. And neither of us accepts compromises when it comes to the craftsmanship that goes into the production of our products. In addition, we don’t produce our products somewhere in India or China, or elsewhere in the world. We manufacture our luminaires only in Germany in Austria: it’s only here that we find the quality and the care, and the craftsmanship, that we value so highly. Our clients – whether private persons or companies – not only want perfect light: they want to experience permanent and always changing pleasure from their luminaires.
SV:
How is your marketing and distribution organized? How would I approach you if I wanted one of your products?
CD:
Roel is primarily responsible for the areas of design and engineering. My main tasks involve marketing, distribution, and the procurement of new business. We market our luminaires that are more of a series-production nature – such as SCARLETT, HELLBOB, and LITTLE BALANCE – through a small and carefully selected circle of top retailers. These include, for example, the specialists München Leuchtet and Electum (both in Munich), SCALA in Hamburg, and Thomas Herrendorf in Berlin. These are people who are not only well established, but who are also extremely flexible and who are prepared to accept and to promote new ideas. It is essential that these partners not only understand our philosophy, but that they also are willing to actively implement it in their own activities. After all: making and selling lovely creations brings joy to others. And that’s our prime mission.
RH:
She’s right. We want to enthuse people with our light, and to incorporate them as well into our dreams. Trying new things, living and enjoying our ideas, and putting them into practice – that’s what we’re trying for. Our partners think the same way: people from commerce and business, as well as architects and lighting designers. And this is one of the essential reasons for our success.
SV:
One last question. What do you love the most in your luminaires?
RH:
I love to find extraordinary and extravagant ideas and to realize them in surprising forms and chandelier types – and to try new approaches and ways in such a classical segment such as crystal chandeliers. This is also how we arrived at our product HELLBOB, for which I developed entirely new technical systems. And this is the way to create floating crystalline spatial structures: crystalline rooms, you could say. This has always been my dream and goal.
SV:
And you, Ms. Dorn?
CD:
I always had a soft spot for the realization of baroque resplendence and ornamentation. Our chandeliers therefore come very close to my concept of beauty, and they simply put me in a good mood: morning, noon, and night.
SV:
I feel the same way. Ms. Dorn, Mr. Haagmans, I thank you for this pleasant discussion, and I wish you continued success in your efforts.
RH:
And we thank you for this interview as well.