Tomiwa Phillips has just acquired an unusual bedside lamp. A week ago, he had been in search of a rare bedside lamp to accentuate the minimalist design of his bedroom. He got a Luku Home Wave Ikat lampshade, N30,031.11 (£108). The lamp, designed by Copper and Silk, is a bold lampshade handmade using satin-finished cotton fabric with a pattern by textile artist and designer, Ptolemy Mann.

In this era, lamp designers are pushing boundaries with their newest pieces. Lamp designs are avant-garde and edgy, they are often inspiring and thrilling to behold. Most of them are a fusion of modern and classical designs that have become collectors’ items.

Biodun Adepegba, an interior decorator, says lamp manufacturers have come to understand the shift in taste of consumers for rare luxury piece, hence they are producing lamps tailored to meet these demands.

According to her, most new designs are influenced by 19^th and 20^th Centuries English, French and American lights.

“Some of the pieces we stock are made by Charles Edwards,” she says. “He is famous for lanterns. His pieces have graced halls of presidential villas, houses of rich men the world over. His pieces are for people who crave for lamps or lanterns with classical air made finely for people of class.”

Truly, like Charles Edwards’s pieces, newest designs are right for people who desire elegant lighting in their homes. They add that unique experience to the entire beauty of hotels, palaces, houses, as they come in every shape, size, mood and with many a different cultural reference like Moorish, Gothic, Parisian, Midcentury Modern, and even plain, old-fashioned English. There are designs to hang in halls, outside on gateposts or walls, and inside on brackets.

Aside lanterns, latest designs of bedside lamps are equally sought-after. There are also interesting designs of hanging lights and chandeliers, desk and standard lamps. In addition, manufacturers are customising designs in their collections specifically to suit a client’s taste. Deigns can either be scaled up or down, re-colour or rework in other ways from the original design.

For instance, Sé Trophy lamp by Nika Zupanc, in gloss ceramic, is a collector’s item any day.

“If there is a design a client loves and wants to replicate, we can get our partners abroad to do that,” says Obioma Chibuzor, a lamp dealer, and “if you have in mind something that does not yet exist, we can help you bring it to life or achieve it.”

Furthermore, there are lamps designed as an above-the-dining-table light that enables home owners walk around the table without knocking down the light. It also allows them move furniture in the home around without fear of damaging it. With various exquisite designs, today the lamp has become synonymous with good taste and a stylish, modern interior. For the first time since its creation, the classic design has been twisted. The latest update involves incorporating an LED light fixture hidden behind a diffuser, as well as a dimmer, reducing power consumption to 18 watts.

Italian brand, Flos, has a reputation for having an iconic lamp for every occasion. The designs have leveraged its 1960s and 1970s creative heritage to fuel its amazing forward momentum. The Arco lamp usually comes with powerful illumination.

For instance, the marble-based “pendant” floor lamp with the arched metal arm designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni in 1962 for Flos, is perhaps the most recognisable lamp in the world. Flos is known globally for its series of timeless designs from the 1960s and 1970s. Today, Flos is in pursuance of new technological challenges with a fervour one can easily describe as wild.

In addition, 1960s designs are now coming in contact with modern technology.

Other interesting designs are built around impressive technological innovations. For instance, Italian Antonio Citterio’s new Kelvin LED floor lamp has a button, which when held for an extra second, the sensors kick in to allow the LED to read and compensate for the level of atmospheric light around it. And Starck’s brand-new Light Photon, a glossy OLED (organic LED) limited-edition table lamp of 500 is the largest OLED lamp in the world and completely unfeasible to create in significant numbers. They are expensive to make, as lamp making is moving from electricity to electronics.

Therefore, lamp designs are more about doing the unusual, crazy things. “The world over, especially in Italy, lamp designers, like shoes or bags designers, do very crazy pieces that end up being regarded as beautiful products. It is about being a crazy and being a visionary,” says Adepegba.

Adepegba further explains that many Italian design companies are now talking of green innovations when it comes to lamp designs. “Designers are now replacing plastic components in their oeuvre, since the beginning of the year, with eco alternative materials. For instance, this Flos’ all-time bestseller, an all-polycarbonate table lamp by Philippe Starck called Miss Sissi – a new eco-plastic polymer created from the byproducts of the sugar-beet and cane industry – will replace the current oil-based plastic. Italian designers do not compromise either on quality or conceptually.”

Also, in a report by FT’s How to Spend It, the new bioplastic, known as a PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate), is made from a sweet-smelling mass that can be manipulated into a material just like polycarbonate. Being a byproduct, it has reportedly zero impact upon the food cycle, requires no organic solvents and is fully biodegradable in water after a number of hours. There is still work to be done on refining the material, plus the setting up of factories and production in Italy to allow for a serious amount of consumer production. They have also yet to establish exactly how to add colour with the longevity needed for a lamp that is designed to last many years, but the entire project is revolutionary, and potentially revolution-starting.

Be that as it may, so long as consumers of luxury piece are always incapable of stopping themselves from falling in love with statement pieces lamps inclusive, designers will never stop redefnining their crafts.