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Tolomeo - Following Tizio's Footsteps
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If Tizio just might be the most famous lamp in the world today, Tolomeo just might be the second most famous lamp.
Indeed, in emulating Tizio, Tolomeo is well on its way to being acknowledged also as a "design icon" of the 20th Century - that rare product that characterizes not only the best of its kind, but also serves as a symbol of unparalleled excellence and timeless form and value.
In recent years, Tolomeo, like Tizio, has become one of Hollywood's most favored props in movies and television. Tolomeo can easily be spotted in recent TV shows like NCIS (all H.Q. offices), Smallville (Luther mansion), Ugly Betty, and Nip/Tuck. Find them on major films such as Hitch, The Truman Show, Men in Black, A.I., Oceans Eleven, Hannibal, just to name a few.
Tolomeo, a single object able to successfully represent a certain lifestyle and a certain sophistication of taste and originality.
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Tolomeo - The Design
The Tolomeo design is the result of a focused product development project of Artemide. A project that in 1986 Artemide assigned to the talented world famous industrial designer Michele De Lucchi, with the collaboration of designer Giancarlo Fassina, head of Artemide's R & D department.
The objective of the project, following the company's specific marketing requirements and strategy, was to create a totally new table/task articulated arm luminaire, new in its style and aesthetics and new in its engineering of articulation and movements. The guidelines and requirements for the development process were clearly set right from the start of the project.
The new table/task luminaire would be characterized by:
- an incandescent light source, allowing for the use of the most common, standard light bulb, from 40 watts up to 100 watts.
- a new, original engineering of the arm articulation and adjustment mechanism, allowing for total flexibility of extension and positioning, as well as of direction of the light emission.
- an arm structure that would adapt to and be supported by a variety of mountings, such as table or floor weighted bases, table clamp or in-set housing and wall brackets to meet a wide range of applications.
- a structural form that, while been greatly dictated by the function, would totally depart from the look of all other table/task luminaires on the market at the time.
- a new interpretation of metals, for a new, more natural look.
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Tolomeo - The Engineering
When Tolomeo was awarded the Compasso d'Oro  , the most prestigious award for Italian industrial design, the reasons and the merits were unequivocally clear. To the jury, Tolomeo represented the classic example of the perfect marriage between design and engineering that had worked together in total "sync" and harmony to materialize an idea and create the perfect object for industrial production.
Indeed, every component of Tolomeo represents the perfect compromise and balance between the designed form and the engineered function, achieved through a minimalistic, "hi-tech" industrial approach and development process:
- the slender, oval shaped extruded arms also providing the concealed housing for the adjustment action springs and the passage channel for the electrical cable.
- the die-cast aluminum joints with the multi function of anchoring the exposed springs tension control steel cables, housing the arm articulation friction control knobs and connecting the luminaire to a variety of supports (table, wall, floor, suspension).
- the stamped aluminum diffuser rotatable 360 degrees around the light bulb holder and tiltable on the supporting die-cast fork. A diffuser designed and engineered to achieve the optimum task light emission spread from the classic, standard incandescent light bulb, always available anytime, anywhere, for less than a dollar.
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Tolomeo - The Design Patents
Tolomeo is protected from copies and imitations by United States Patent no. Des. 305,155 - Des. 302, 734 - Des. 302,735 - Des. 304,624 - Des. 302,866
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