The Flower Power Lamp

The Flower Pot lamp, designed by Verner Panton in 1969, is the lamp of its era and a good example of Scandinavian design.

In the era of the 60s, the flower power generation took over declaring love, peace and harmony for everyone; students revolted in France and Italy, and man was sent to the Moon. The design for that era was bright, colorful and extremely playful – exactly what Verner Panton knew best. He designed his lamp with the happenings of the era in mind – therefore the name, The Flower Pot lamp.

At the same time as being the voice of the hippie era, the design of The Flower Pot lamp is simple and minimalistic like Scandinavian design is thought to be. The lamp consists of two semi-circular, different sized spheres facing each other, and a simple stand for the table lamp models. The colors of the lamp are all bright but only one color is used throughout the whole lamp; this simple design and style makes the lamp an imposing design piece. That was probably also in Verner Panton’s mind when he designed this lamp: for him, the color was even more important than form as he believed that colors aroused feelings.

When offered to the market, The Flower Pot lamp became incredibly popular. The pendants hung in restaurants and exhibitions, and soon in everybody’s homes as well. When many of them with different colors were placed near each other, an almost psychedelic atmosphere was created.

Related to the Panton’s design it is often said, that Verner Panton successfully interpreted the times of the hippie movement and Moon landing. One good example can be seen in Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, where one of the Verner Panton’s chairs is featured. And when this interpretation is added to the fact that Panton’s design is truly Scandinavian, one may understand that Panton was able to create undeniably unique pieces of design. Someone has said that “an object cannot become a design icon until it has stood the test of time and appears quite naturally in different settings, giving it a symbolic aura of its own.” We agree that The Flower Pot is just that.