Function is inherently tied to the poetics of design in Aleksej Iskos’ unmistakable work. Every object he designs, carefully balances technical know-how with the whimsical. They are all also about telling stories.
The more immediate, the better. Ones that not only appeal to the senses but also the imagination.
”I often find that my design process is a peculiar combination of rational thinking and intuition. When logic doesn’t suffice, intuition lends a hand and when intuition falters, logic sets in,” says Iskos.

The Ukrainian-born designer started out as an architect and teacher, quickly finding the scale, time frames and number of people involved in the process overwhelming. He wanted to get closer. Design was somewhere between teaching and architecture, more tangible. His landing in Denmark in the late 80s was an act of faith, he simply needed to get away from the Soviet.

“Soviet was fifty shades of brown, so I moved hoping to find a better, more beautiful life. In Copenhagen, I was expecting skyscrapers, neon, plastic, colours. Needless to say, I was disappointed to find soap-treated wood.”

It took time to understand Danish design and the values behind it. When I did, I felt profoundly inspired, but with my own take on it.
"Your combined experiences colour the way you design. A journalist in the 90s once said that I combine Scandinavian minimalism with a Ukrainian sense of poetry or the Slavic soul. It made me laugh back then, but now that I think about it, it’s not so far off.” 

"Lighting has become a subconscious part of our everyday life. We come home, turn on a switch without thinking about it and there is light. In principle, it’s nothing short of a miracle”, he says. 

"When I work with light it is about the story, as with all of my work. Light is a great way of telling a story."

“Scandinavian design is partially characterised by its great respect for nature in terms of materials and light; something that I wanted to infuse the Calm Wall Lamp with, creating a light that isn’t tamed but instead has an organic flow,” he says.

He likens good design to a really great magic trick — not the ones with all of the glitter, smoke and people sawed in half, but the one where the magic is simple, subtle. A card up the sleeve. That is the kind of effect he tries to create with his objects, Calm Wall Lamp certainly being an embodiment of this aspiration.