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Ingo Maurer

Ingo Maurer was born May 12, 1932 in Reichenau (Island), Lake of Constance, Germany. Maurer traces his fascination with light to childhood boating trips with his fisherman-cum-inventor father on Lake Constance. He was at first an apprentice type writer but soon after he began to study graphic design in Munich. In 1960 Ingo and his family moved to the United States living in New York and San Francisco where he was working as a freelance graphic designer but soon moved back to Germany and founded Design M, a company that developed and manufactured lamps after his own designs.


The company was later renamed to ‘Ingo Maurer GmbH‘. The world was soon blessed with Ingos exception style of decorations such as lamps, lighting systems, and objects in the mid 1960's.


The origin of his work all begin with his love of the traditional light bulb and got the inspiration when he was in a very cheap pensione in Venice after a good meal and a bottle of good wine, and looked up at the light bulb he recalled. "It was like a flash. I fell in love. The light bulb is in everyone's heart. Cartoonists use it when a character has an idea - a bulb lights up above their heads. It has tremendous poetry.". He was able to invent in what is known as the Yayaho lighting system in which it is a low voltage light system by Ingo Maurer. To expand the YaYaHo light system there are special cords, a metal rod for the ceiling mounting as well as blends for some elements available.


He invented it the Yayaho lighting in 1984 when he went to New York and it took him around 2-3 years to complete the project. He has many famous pieces such as the Porca Misera which is made up of a suspension lamp made with porcelain shards broken by being thrown on the floor and pieces being glued back together. Ingo came up with the idea in which he said “I found too many designs there slick and design-conscious


Porca Miseria! is partly a kind of revolt against that tendency.” The chandelier was first called ‘Zabriskie Point‘ after a film by Antonioni where a castle was blown up in slow motion. “But then the first few Italians came, and — since no one had seen this ever before — said, ‘Porca miseria!’ This would be considered one his most famous pieces but he has pieces all over the globe in different locations showing off his work such as the birdie bulbs which is hanging up in the Frankfurt airport. The " bulb" is from 1969 and is included in the design collection of the museum of modern art.


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