Mayday by Flos: lights & lamps at light11.eu

Mayday Interior light Mayday Exterior light

"Mayday is neither a pendant light over a table, nor a bedside lamp, nor a garage light
It is none of these things and yet all of them at the same time." Konstantin Grcic, designer of the Mayday

Flos Mayday – versatile lamp for cozy light

Flos Mayday has been considered an all-purpose lighting weapon since 2000. The functional indoor lamp by Konstantin Grcic has enjoyed so much popularity in recent years that Flos decided to develop it further. The Italian manufacturer designed the luminaire to be more sustainable, brought new colors into play and additionally created Mayday Outdoor, a robust outdoor luminaire.

With Flos Mayday create a cozy atmosphere in the living room or bedroom, on the terrace or in the garden thanks to the diffused light. Due to its refined design with handle, hook and long cable with plug, the lamp can be used very versatile – as a floor or table lamp as well as a pendant lamp.

The diffuser of the lamp is made of recycled polypropylene obtained from industrial waste. No adhesives are used in the assembly of the Mayday, which makes the lamp easy to disassemble and all parts can be recycled.

Incidentally, the fact that the luminaire is called Mayday is less due to the emergency call "Mayday" than to the Mayday Festival, which Grcic had in mind when naming it.

Mayday – award-winning interior luminaire for atmospheric light

Mayday

The interior lamp Mayday with E27 socket, like the outdoor lamp, is characterized by its conical diffuser made of recycled polypropylene, on which there is a handle with hook. Attached to this is a retractable cable with a length of 485 cm. This grants you a high flexibility in the place of use.

Whether hung on the bedpost, placed on the sideboard, positioned next to the sofa or bed: The Flos Mayday – awarded the coveted Compasso d'Oro – gives you diffused light and thus creates a cozy ambience in the living room or bedroom, in the hallway or garage.

If necessary, you can also hang the lamp upside down. For this purpose, there is a recess at the bottom of the diffuser.

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Mayday Outdoor – robust outdoor light for garden, terrace and balcony

Mayday Outdoor

The outdoor version of the Mayday can be used outside almost indefinitely thanks to jet water protection and a long rubber cable. Place it near your lounge furniture on the terrace, put it next to the garden pond or hang it in trees or above the balcony. Turn on the light with E14 socket and enjoy atmospheric outdoor lighting as you wind down a balmy summer evening in your outdoor living room.

The Schuko plug of the Mayday Outdoor by Flos is spray water protected, but can be easily changed if you also want a higher water protection here.

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Konstantin Grcic – from cabinetmaker to world-famous designer

Konstantin Grcic is considered one of the most influential industrial designers:innern the present day. He was born in Munich in 1965 and began his training as a cabinetmaker in Dorset, England, in 1985. He then studied industrial design at the Royal College of Art in London. After graduating, he worked as an assistant for Jasper Morrison, who became one of his great role models.

In 1991 Konstantin Grcic founded a design studio under his name in Munich. Since 2018, his studio is located in Berlin. In 2007, Grcic was named "A&W Designer of the Year 2007" by A&W Architektur & Wohnen magazine. A year later, Art magazine named him the "Greatest Living Designer."

Many of Grcic's objects can be admired in museums worldwide. The Flos Mayday, for example, is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The style of Konstantin Grcic

Unlike many other designers, Grcic's designs are not characterized by a clearly recognizable signature. The Berlin-based designer is primarily interested in creating functional, pragmatic design solutions. In doing so, he is always oriented towards human needs.

Konstantin Grcic attaches great importance to his products being easy to use and as versatile as possible. To this end, he relies on a reduced language of form and designs that have been thought through down to the smallest detail. Under the highest precision and care, as well as with a pinch of humor, functional lamps with a timeless character are created.

Konstantin Grcic strives for simplicity. For this, however, he does not orientate himself on clear lines, but rather draws inspiration from tools – as is the case with the Flos Mayday. For these are reduced to the necessary, but still fascinate with their shapes and details.

The history of the emergence of Mayday

Flos Mayday is a very personal project of Konstantin Grcic. Because with it, the designer created a product that he wanted to have himself: a lamp that, like a tool, fulfills a specific function that is explained by its form. In addition, it was important to the designer to create a lamp that is not tied to a fixed destination, but is very versatile: as a pendant or floor lamp, in the living room or in the garage.

In order to plan for the versatile use from the outset, Grcic created a drawing with a floor, two walls and a ceiling. Because the lamp should be able to be hung on the ceiling and wall as well as placed on the floor. Thanks to the handle, which also serves as a practical cable winder, it can be easily carried from one place to another.

What makes Flos Mayday so special

Grcic sees as a significant success of his luminaire that people actually use it in as many different ways as planned. He observes, for example in social media, that each:r owner:in uses the Mayday in its own way: as a pendant or floor lamp, indoors or outdoors.

Konstantin Grcic sees the greatest advantage of the Flos Mayday multipurpose lamp in the fact that it is functional, uncomplicated and above all affordable. This is due in no small part to the simple – quite common over twenty years ago – features: diffuser, handle with hook, cable with plug and socket for the bulb. This simplicity and durability make Flos Mayday a very special lamp that inspires today as then with its timeless design and cozy light.

More Flos lamps from Grcic

Mayday is one of Konstatin Grcic's most successful designs, but it is far from the only lighting object the German industrial designer has developed. Other lights he has designed for Flos include OK and Noctambule.

With OK, Grcic gave a modern interpretation to the design classic Parentesi in 2014. Here, he transfers the functional principle of the pendant luminaire into the new millennium with a contemporary design and efficient LED technology.

Noctambule is a modular light column from 2019. The luminaire made of mouth-blown glass is characterized by its noble, minimalist design and impressive lighting effect. Thanks to the transparent material and the simple shape, the luminaire keeps in the background and sets on atmospheric light accents in the dark.