How a chair became a lamp

The founders of Graypants, Seth Grizzle & Jon Gibbs, first encountered cardboard as a material during a design competition, where they created a sustainable chair from it. They then made the fortunate discovery that cardboard is also ideal as a light diffuser. From the cardboard scraps of the chair production, they immediately created lamps as pretty accessories to the actual furniture pieces. Because leftover pieces are also called "scrap" in English, the collection was named Scraplight.

Cardboard can do more than just package

Seth & Jon view material science as a kind of experiment. They constantly aim to create new connections between material and product by abstracting familiar materials. For example, we often only know cardboard as packaging material. However, its use for lamp production opens up entirely new possibilities and expands awareness of how versatile materials can actually be. The designers have already worked with recycled aluminum, old newspapers, and wood.

Nature as a Muse

From the beginning, Graypants drew inspiration for their lamps from nature. This created a harmonious interplay between material and form. For this, corrugated cardboard is precisely cut into layers of different sizes with a laser. These are then lovingly assembled by hand into natural shapes. Only adhesive that is harmless to the environment and people is used.

Social Responsibility

From their first office in Seattle, Graypants moved across the Atlantic to Holland, where the company established its European production. This helped to avoid long transport routes. Seth & Jon attach great importance to their role as designers, as their ideas and innovations can have a significant impact on the well-being and social concerns of a society. This responsible approach to people and resources also led to a social employment program, through which, for example, long-term unemployed individuals found new employment manufacturing Graypants lamps.