California Design and Build

Hand polished, anodized aluminum and silk lampshade with color corrected LED light source which is focused with a reflector and a honeycomb, then diffused.

Michael Simon Toon was asked a favor: view and edit his friend’s artwork, a huge body of fine art which included oil paintings and illustrations. After seeing the scale of the task ahead, MST decided that it would take three days to go through it all. “I’ll do it,” said MST. “But I’ll have to build a suitable light to view the work with. Otherwise it will strain my eyes.”

Hand polished, anodized aluminum and silk lampshade with color corrected LED light source which is focused with a reflector and a honeycomb, then diffused.

MST produced this lightshade, a “tensegrity” like structure, made of hand polished, anodized aluminum and silk with an industry standard lamp and an LED light source. MST drew on his experience as a freelance designer, illustrator, photographer and builder. Every design feature was produced solely to create a better quality of light, using focusing, diffusion and color correction.

Hand polished, anodized aluminum and silk lampshade with color corrected LED light source which is focused with a reflector and a honeycomb, then diffused.

Little to no consideration was given to the decorative or ornamental qualities of the lightshade besides the use of the highest quality materials, fabrication and finishing. This strict adherence to function over form gives it a unique aesthetic. It is a tool in the strictest sense of the word, designed to produce the ultimate artificial light for a domestic environment. Photographic lighting, in the home.

Hand polished and anodized aluminum pendant lampshade with borosilicate glass and color corrected LED light source which is focused, diffused, then focused again.

MST will be continuing to design and build a series of furniture and lighting for domestic urban environments in 2012. They are designed and built to be functional, efficient, and long lasting. There are objects that age well; old leather chairs, oak chests, or a well seasoned cast iron frying pan. You will hardly ever find these objects thrown out, because they last long enough to pass on from generation to generation.