Dezeen Magazine

Sebastian Wrong launches "competitive" new lighting brand called Wrong London

Business news: British designer Sebastian Wrong is launching a new lighting company with offices in London and Hong Kong.

Wrong said he hoped the brand, called Wrong London, would become an "important, competitive" new player in the lighting sector.

The company will exploit affordable new LED technology coming out of the far east, which is making advanced lighting products "accessible and affordable," Wrong said.

It will launch in Milan in April and is a collaboration with Danish brand Hay. Wrong described the brand as an "evolution" of Wrong for Hay, the three-year-old collaboration between the designer and Hay.

Non-lighting products developed under the Wrong for Hay name will become part of the Hay lineup while the designer concentrates on the new brand.

The original partners - Hay co-founders Rolf and Mette Hay and Danish businessman Troels Holch Povlsen,  - remain shareholders in the new company. Hay is part of Nine United, a private group of companies headed Povlsen, who is founder of Danish fashion chain Bestseller.

"They're still my partners," Wrong told Dezeen. "We're all shareholders. That situation hasn't changed at all. It's a separate, UK registered company."

Wrong London will sell through Hay's stores and use the Danish brand's infrastructure. "We'll be fully independent from the Hay brand, but we'll still use Hay's logistics, warehousing, distribution and sales systems," Wrong said.

Wrong for Hay collection
Sebastian Wrong and Hay's debut Wrong for Hay collection was launched in September 2013

Wrong for Hay launched its debut collection in September 2013. The collaboration started out as a way of bringing Wrong's expertise in lighting to the Danish brand, which previously produced furniture and accessories, but not lighting.

The new company, which launches with five employees in London and four in Hong Kong working on product development, will make a clearer separation between Hay's product range and Wrong's.

"We decided we wanted to become a specialist lighting company," Wrong explained. “Wrong for Hay had lighting as well as furniture and accessories. We realised that with Hay it would be better for us and better for them if we focused on our specialist area without competing with Hay."

Wrong – who designed the bestselling Spun series of lights for Flos in 2003 – said he felt the market was now ready for a new lighting brand since technology now made it possible to develop advanced products at affordable prices.

"The lighting industry is really changing. It's becoming accessible and affordable now in terms of technology," Wrong said.

sebastian-wrong_spun-light_flos_dezeen_sqa
The Spun light, which Wrong designed in 2003, is one of Flos' bestselling designs

With a product development team in Hong Kong, Wrong London will be able to work with LED suppliers in China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan, Wrong said.

"This is the hub [for LED technology]," Wrong said. "This is where the newest of the new is coming out. It's very much about being involved in that and knowing what's happening and not just using it as a supply base."

Wrong London will launch a total of 17 new products this year, with lights by designers including Pierre Charpin, Stefan Diez, Lars Beller Fjetland, Johan van Hengel, Joel Hoff, SmithMatthias and Bertjan Pot.

"We're launching a very special task light we've been working on for three years with Pierre Charpin" Wrong said. "It's a very precise, technical product."

Other products will feature fabrics by flamboyant Dutch textile brand Vlisco.

"I would like us to become a very important, competitive lighting brand that appeals to a wide range of consumers, doing everything from very technical products to very eclectic, colourful, strong collaborations as well," Wrong said.

Wrong, who was born in 1971, was previously co-founder and design director of British furniture and lighting brand Established & Sons. He left the brand in 2013.

Other products designed by Wrong include the Wrong Woods series of furniture created in collaboration with artist Richard Woods, and the Font Clock for Established & Sons.