Hey Folks – It’s Matt back on the blog today with some exciting news about our new lighting line and a huge upcoming collaboration that’s in the works.
Meet The New French & French Lighting
First, let me officially introduce you to French & French Lighting: an original French & French line of custom light fixtures and lamps. Eventually I envision this product line being much larger and encompassing all sorts of handcrafted pieces…but for now lighting is the focus of our main prototypes.
These pieces are truly a culmination of the work Heather and I have done to reach this point in our business, and I hope you enjoy the results as much as we do!
Iko Iko + Horne
Here’s the awesome part: French & French Lighting will be featured on Horne this month in the lead up to High Point Market!
Horne is undoubtedly one of the top online portals for modern design. They showcase high-quality designers and manufacturers of unique pieces from all over the world, and we’re thrilled to be included.
The great folks behind Horne are actually right here in Santa Fe, and we’ve known them for years — but being featured on the site is still a dream come true for us. One of our fixtures will even be part of an exclusive collaboration that will only be found on their site.
We’ll also have some videos that will tell the story of our process during this collaboration, so you can watch the teams from Horne and French & French as we plan, design, iterate, and create these fixtures together. (In one sense, this will look almost like the process we’d undertake with any client project, so you’ll get an up-close look at how our team works as we build out the line.)
And of course, if you want to check out the final fixtures themselves, we anticipate having them ready for market by the end of this summer. Make sure to look for updates here and on Instagram as we prepare for what will be a massive launch day!
F & F Lighting Inspiration
At this point, you might be wondering what makes Heather and I qualified to launch this particular product line — so here’s a little more background about how we got here.
You might be surprised to learn that my design aesthetic is actually informed by a very eclectic upbringing: from touring in a 90s punk rock band, to living on a boat in the honkey tonk “hurricane holes” of Alabama, to working in a furniture studio, to spending years as an electrician before setting out as a designer. My family forebears are adventurers, artists, travelers, inventors, and farmers…and I was privileged to experience the very best humanity has to offer from all walks of life.
Though these experiences might not seem very cohesive, for me they come together where modern design is concerned. Heather and I both studied humanities in college, and for us design is about how people adorn their spaces in a way that makes them feel expressed, heard, and part of something bigger than themselves culturally.
I think we’ve really come into our own style since we’ve been able to do that for ourselves: come back to our roots here in the country outside Santa Fe, and start building our homestead and workshop. We have the space now to grow in our own way — not necessarily the way a big box ecommerce shop would, but in a way that’s very authentic to both our story and our roots.
We have our feet firmly planted here on our family land, while we build up the F&F brand in Santa Fe proper. Our newly expanded showroom is becoming an amazing boutique where we can meet clients during business hours, plus host popup events and dinner parties in the evening — so stop by if you haven’t seen it yet!
What’s Next for French & French Lighting?
In addition to our work on these custom light fixtures with Horne, you can expect to see the Iko Iko line grow in the coming months. We’re finishing up prototypes for several more pieces (including eight ceiling fixtures and a handful of lamps) that should be ready by the end of this year or early next.
After that, I want to branch out into smaller runs of lamp collaborations that would each be limited editions. My goal is to include a personal message in every purchase, just to emphasize the fact that these truly are handmade by design professionals. (I’ve sourced these amazing notecards that will be a piece of art in themselves!)
Beyond lighting, I think you can expect to see even more of a folk/bohemian vibe reflected in our future work. We are collaborating with glass makers, leather artisans, and even patina masters as we incorporate both modern and natural materials like brass and wood.
Meet Me at High Point!
Heather and I will both be traveling to High Point Market for the Design Bloggers Tour, so if you see us please feel free to stop and say hi! I’d love to meet any of you who will be there, and I’m really looking forward to being a part of the experience with Heather. We’ll be meeting our design heroes and leaders in the industry, and it’s a great privilege to be there telling our story on the Bloggers Tour as well.
Stay up-to-date with all the exciting events going on at High Point Market and get behind the scene reports by following us on Instagram! We look forward to sharing the tour with you all!
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