At Bklyn Designs: Charliedoes Lamps
By Tanya Palta on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Charliedoes Lamps. Designed by Charlie Brokate.
At Brooklyn Designs, designer and illustrator Charlie Brokate will exhibit his range of lamps and lighting designs under the label charliedoes. Those familiar with Brokate’s work will testify to the designer’s affinity to minimalism and unfussy iconography. Brokate’s aesthetic sense trickles into his modish lamps and to me each lamp is akin to visual poetry.
Brokate with his lamps have immortalized everyday images and all his lamps have been laser cut with hand-applied graphics. The Boy Lamp for me represents the crucial coming of age period that each young man experiences when transiting from adolescence to adulthood. The images on the lamp emanate an aura of gentrified nostalgia and yarn an ephemeral story that is poignant and soulful. The Lamps measure 15” high and have a 10” diameter.
If the Boy Lamp tries to encapsulate the essence and innocence of an idyllic childhood then the Barcode lamp demonstrates the designer’s inventiveness. Seeking inspiration from something as pedestrian as a barcode, the lamp ensures that you never ever dismiss those little black lines which are usually associated with something as banal as consumerism.
I cannot but help feel that all lamps by Charliedoes express a sense of realism. To me, the belief that beauty is right in front of us in everyday objects and imagery is potent and stimulating. The lamps can be integrated into any living space as they exude a calm quietude by emitting a pristine glow that is muted yet powerful.
Popularity: 12% [?]
More from this author
DutchTub 
Couches That Are No Slouches! 6 Comments Add your own
Very thought provoking Alicita. I am not familiar with Milhauser’s works and though I agree that idyllic childhoods are almost non-existent but most us can recall some semblance of an “idyllic childhood”, where there was a sense of wonder and hope. I dont see it necessary as an ironic imagery but something we all hoped to have as kids and aspire as parents.Idealistic probably , naive definitely but then thats humanity for you :)
“Nostalgia?” “Irony?” “Idyllic Childhood?” When I was at the “coming of age” age I was happy to coax a few lumens from beneath the torn and faded carbon covering of my sadly overused Lite Brite—a nostalgic icon that may have a been source of inspiration for Charleydoes.
[…] wrote At Bklyn Designs: Charliedoes Lamps on May 7, 2008. Check out print lamp-shades by Charlie Brokate, whom transposes simple imageries […]
[…] am thankful for the Charliedoes Lamps. The lamp with its gentrified nostalgic illustrations seems to capture the innocence of an idyllic […]
[…] in the tradition of Charlie Does Lamps or the Campana Brothers Micky, Minnie, and Pluto Chairs, Funature is like childhood for grown ups. […]
I find the lamp with the little boy to be nostaligic in an eerie way—reminds me of the writer Steven Milhauser, who often uses nostaligia as a theme in his work, particularly in the stories in The Barnum Museum and The Knife Thrower. But nostaligia is a longing for something that never existed—an ideal childhood, perhaps. I’d put these in a child’s room just to make an ironic comment about the illusory nature of idyllic childhoods, and also to act as a reality check for parents who want perfection.