Vela Light

Like its namesake sail on the Argonaut’s ship, the Vela Light is a luminescent, billowing swath of fabric. Our design responded to the idea of making lighting more personal, with the challenge of making it as flexible and versatile as textiles – a soft, ephemeral, tactile and yet still functional “gleaming second skin”.

The technical design process involved considerations of both comfort and sustainability. Constructed with a micro-USB to ensure rechargeability (providing 12 hours of light per charge), the portable “fixture” has a toggled handle and loops, allowing the light to be draped or clipped.

A haptic design, the fabric can be folded or rolled in various ways to change its brightness, function, or feel: voluminous bunches as a hung lantern, sprawled out as a wearable item on your body (or even your dog’s!), laid flat to illuminate a tabletop, linked together as an environmental installation, twisted into a rope around your handlebars, or the like. It’s creative uses abound.   

Read about the vast material and process experiments and innovations behind the Vela Light in the Lab.