London Design Festival 2014: Illuminated installation plays on the idea of time

London – As part of the 2014 London Design Festival, a trio of designers have created a time-inspired installation that is on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Candela, sponsored by luxury watchmaker Officine Panerai, is made of a large, revolving circular canvas. The work of UK-based product designer Felix de Pass, graphic designer Michael Montgomery and ceramicist Ian McIntyre, the work uses the same phosphorescent material – the patented Super-LumiNova – that Panerai uses to illuminate its watch faces in the dark. ‘The brief was to create an experience based around the theme of time,’ says Montgomery.

As the wheel rotates, thousands of LED lights charge the Super-LumiNova pigment on its surface. The resulting patterns then gradually fade until they circle around to be charged again. ‘It’s taking that light energy and then dispersing it over time,’ says McIntyre.

The work has an element of craft that is fitting for its surroundings at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Its high-tech engineering is ‘portrayed in quite a low-tech, sensitive way,’ says de Pass. ‘For me, it has a kind of painterly approach.’

For more on the London Design Festival, visit our Seed and Shows sections.