Founded in 1945 by the master Giuseppe Ostuni, Oluce is the oldest Italian lighting design brand which is still active. In fact, before the war there was only Arteluce by Gino Sarfatti, which disappeared in the late 90s. In 1948, however Azucena and Lamperti were born along with Arredoluce and Stilnovo in 1950. Nevertheless, Arteluce, Azucena and Oluce were the ones who dominated the Italian outlook. The building of a center for designers – who were strongly committed for the first time to the rebuilding and birth of mass production – encouraged the Milanese forum: Vittoriano Viganò and BBPR, Gigi Caccia Dominioni and Ignazio Gardella, Marco Zanuso and Joe Colombo, etc..
In the early 90s, the design of the enterprise was characterized by the rigour of the Swiss desginer Hannes Wettstein. For instance, the Wettstein Soirée model – a slender assembly of aluminum – and Zephy provocative mmodels, Sister of Riccardo Dalisi… Last but not least, in 1995, Oluce took a different path under the artistic direction of Marco Romanelli, who strengthened his international success. The main contemporary designers used a new formula that consisted on expressing personal experiences, as the English Sebastian Bergen, the Swiss Hans Peter Weidmann and the Italian Laudani and Romanelli did. In 1997, the Estela lamp was the first product born through the word and designed by the poetic Brazilian brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana. In 2000, the Cloud series marked the start of the collaboration between Toni Cordero and Oluce. Cordero, one of the main Italian architects from his generation, boosted his vision using disruptive and unconventional shapes. Cloud has been his wonderful last work. .
Finally, Oki Sato, the youngest Japanese designer also known as Nendo, joined the Oluce team, first with Sorane and later with Switch. However, we are no longer talking about Oluce’s history, but about their contribution to contemporary design.
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