// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Tizio say to his lamp? You're a bright friend.
Tizio is a desk lamp created by Richard Sapper for Artemide in 1972.[1] It was selected for the Compasso d'Oro industrial design award in 1979. The lamp is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art[2] and Museum of Modern Art.[3]
The position and the direction of the bulb can be adjusted; thanks to two counterweights, moving it requires little effort. There are no wires between the base and the lamp: the two parallel arms, connected with snap fasteners, conduct safe 12-volt electricity.[4] The bulb is halogen, which was previously mainly used in the automotive industry.[5]
The Tizio is available in a variety of sizes and colours; the original, and most widely known, is the 50 (referring to the wattage of the bulb) in black. The mid-sized model is the 35, and there is the bedside-sized Micro (20 Watts). Other colours are white, and grey metallic; and, the occasional limited edition in polished aluminium, or titanium-colour. There also is a floorstanding version, the Terra, which consist of a 70-centimeter-high pedestal with the same 11 cm diameter as the lamp's base, with the 50 added on top. The Terra-stand is also available in a 10 cm diameter, matching the 35 model. Recently,[when?] an energy-saving LED-powered version of the full-sized model has been added; as has a version of the regular 50 with a horizontally rotatable head, the Plus. The LED and Plus versions are equipped with a dimmer; all other versions have a three-position switch, allowing for off, full, and – approximately – half power.
Design changes were made to the head in the nineties – a glass cover, and a thin wire terminating in a small red bead were added.
The name Tizio was given by Ernesto Gismondi, the founder of Artemide, and alludes to Tizio, Caio e Sempronio, the Italian equivalent of Tom, Dick and Harry. One explanation for the name is that Gismondi hoped to appeal to everyone;[6] another is that Gismondi hoped to convince Sapper to create Caio and Sempronio designs as well.[4]
Bibliography
[edit]- Volker Fischer, Hans Höger. The Tizio-Light by Richard Sapper. Art Books International Limited 1997 ISBN 3931317420
See also
[edit]- Balanced-arm lamp
- Lampette
- Tensor lamp
- Tolomeo desk lamp, sometimes considered its successor[7]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Richard Sapper Design - Tizio - 1972". richardsapperdesign.com. June 27, 2013. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
- ↑ "Richard Sapper | "Tizio" Table Lamp | The Met". Metropolitan Museum of Art. August 18, 2016. Retrieved 2026-07-31.
- ↑ "Richard Sapper. Tizio Table Lamp. 1971 | MoMA". Museum of Modern Art. September 20, 2015. Retrieved 2026-07-31.
- 1 2 "Tizio 50 Years". Artemide. June 8, 2022. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
- ↑ Design Within Reach - Designers- Bio of Richard Sapper
- ↑ Dainelli, Guendalina (September 29, 2022). "Genio della lampada" [Genius of the lamp] (in Italian). Mag 1861. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
- ↑ Gardiner, Virginia (Jan–Feb 2004). "How Does an Idea Become a Lamp?". Dwell: 108–109.