Serge Mouille, Lighting Designer

As I was perusing through the usual subjects of mid-century design I stumbled across the ever so fantastic Serge Mouille, who seems to have had a recent web design update. Although not totally finished at the moment it looks like the studio will be releasing a publication of photography featuring Serge himself and exclusive imagery from inside the studio. As you know I’m pretty much a sucker for snaps of craftsman at work, so when I saw this imagery I thought it would be worth pointing out and also we’ve never really talked about Serge before so it only seems natural in my eyes.

Serge Mouille is primarily known for his work as a designer of lighting fixtures, some of his best known designs are the larger angular lights which include the “Oeil” lamp that was made out of enameled aluminum, brass, and enameled steel. He was quite simplistic in the way he designed each piece, he said once that his lighting fixtures were “a reaction to the Italian models, which were beginning to invade the market in 1950”, saying that they were too complicated and over the top. This meant he really focused on stripping back and creating sculptural pieces that had movement and were ultimately dynamic in the space. Obviously these pieces are still designed to this day, hence the Serge Mouille website, and its nice to see them getting the appreciation they deserve. These lights really are timeless!

Trained as a silversmith and studied under sculpture Gilbert LaCroix it’s easy to see where Serge got his influences. After that he opened his own metalworking studio and he truly became experimental and creative, along the way establishing the SCM (Société de Création de Modèles) in 1961 as a way to encourage young and emerging lighting designers. One thing I’ve seen popping up frequently, someone we’ve not talked about here before either, is a man called Steph Simon who opened up a contemporary design store in Paris under his own name. He was a major influence in the design scene who gave a lot of todays greats a chance to showcase their work, most notably Prouvé, Perriand, Noguchi and even Serge Mouille who we’re discussing today.

Mouille is a great guy and is definitely someone you should be researching, he’s up on the top of my list at the moment and it’s great to know he made each lamp by hand and never used machine technology to maximise production numbers. Obviously they’re all works of art. For now check out a few images that I collected from their website, head that way to find out more and also keep your eyes peeled regarding the new “publication, it’s going to be a good.

www.sergemouille.com

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