The detail and mannerisms of the 75D are less precise than its contemporaries in the Akari Lighting Sculpture range, with off-kilter, lines running against one another a trademark of this particular piece. Appearances can be deceiving though, with the 75D produced to the same exacting standards as its more formally-driven siblings in the line.
Every lamp in the Akari range is handmade in Gifu, Japan, the home of the paper lantern, gifting the Vitra Akari 75D Suspension Light with a genuine sense of heritage.
Isamu Noguchi was an American-Japanese designer who originally trained as a sculptor and brought a sculptural sensibility to everything he created: lighting, furniture, gardens and stage sets. He studied sculpture, after dropping out of medical school, in late 1920s New York and then in Paris as an assistant to Constantin Brancusi.
Noguchi designed a range of paper Akari lights throughout the 1950s and 1960s, alongside the popular organic furniture he made in curvy sculpted wood now part of the Vitra Collection, such as the Freeform Sofa and Coffee Table. He was equally prolific as a landscape architect; he recreated the ancient Buddhist stone gardens he had loved in Kyoto at Lever House in New York (1951), UNESCO in Paris (1951), the Yale campus (1960) and Jerusalem’s Israel Museum (1960).