The Team lamp, inspired by Snake video game
The Snake game, or snake game for lovers of Molière’s language, do you know? Childishly simple, it has delighted millions of players on their Nokia 3310. It is also considered the first star game to be developed only for mobile phones. What does it consist of ? The player controls a long, thin line similar to a snake, which must slalom between the edges of the screen and the obstacles that dot the level.
To win each of the levels, the player must make their snake eat pellets. Today, designers Timon and Melchior Grau have made a lamp, which is called the Team. Lighting inspired by the characteristic shapes that the game draws on the screen. And which adapts to changes in our lifestyles. In short, a “hybrid” lamp. Explanations.
2 brothers behind an ingenious invention
Timon and Melchior Grau are the Creative Directors of Tobias Grau, based in Hamburg, Germany. They graduated from the Berlin Art School. This explains their creativity and their interdisciplinary approach. They worked alongside German filmmaker Hito Steyerl and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei during their studies. Their first project, Parrot, was presented at the M + B gallery in Los Angeles. Their goal ? Create a new generation of mobile and interactive lights for the Tobias Grau catalog. It was in this context that Team was born, the lamp inspired by the video game Snake.
Snake to accompany you at home or when you work
At first glance, the Team presents a sinuous, curved and constantly growing line. In the perfect idea of the game’s iconography. And like the famous snake, it can twist. To provide more flexibility and optimum lighting performance. It is equipped with innovative LED Beam Lens technology. The great thing about Team is that it works for both work and relaxation. For the Grau brothers, it is a response to the profound changes in our lifestyles. Changes that have been induced by the pandemic. Today, places of work and life simply merge. “There will be more and more hybrid workplaces. Architects will try to give people the places and environments that best suit their needs: more collaborative and dynamic, ”they say.
The concern to produce in a sustainable way
For the Brau brothers, the future of the office and the world in general will inevitably be more sustainable. How? ‘Or’ What ? “By taking care of every detail of the design process, designing sustainable products, carefully choosing the materials, the dimensions and the way they are produced. Resource reduction is also a big part of Team’s design – it only requires two-thirds of the average lamp. No material not necessary for production is used. But the greatest durability lies in the process of automating the control of motion sensors and in the use of advanced LEDs (for Team, Beam Lens Technology which, positioned behind the angular lenses, optimizes the distribution of light). The lamp is also equipped with sensors to control movement and reduce power consumption accordingly.
Video games on vintage mobile phones, concern for the environment for a product with an elegant and refined design … The Team created by the Grau brothers definitely fits in with its times. The fruit of the imagination of a somewhat regressive, rational generation concerned with respect for the environment? If we add the consideration given to new ways of working, the Team seems to be on course to make its users happy.