Anyone who sits at a desk for eight+ hours a day knows there are a few basic needs this sedentary lifestyle requires beyond food/water/air. Nay, needs is not quite strong enough. Let us call them essentials—the two most important being a good chair and good lighting. I've pretty much got the former covered (I'm a chair obsessive), but I'm in serious need of some decent light in my life (you don't even want to see the three random lamps I have MacGyvered at various angles and heights around my desk).
This personal deficiency is probably why I was so struck by Mantis, a new desk lamp designed by Berlin-based studio Bottcher+Henssler for the Sloveian lighting company Vertigo Bird. With just three main components—two maple pieces and a bright turquoise aluminum tube—the Mantis is a masterpiece of minimal design with a pleasing color palette to boot. The real kicker is that it doesn't require screws, knobs or bolts of any kind. By harnessing the power of gravity, the height of the LED lamp can be adjusted by simply sliding the aluminum tube through the base. You can swing, raise and lower the lamp to your exact specifications without fussing with knobs or unscrewing and then rescrewing the arm into place. Many a lamp in a past checkered with lighting struggles has gone the way of the Goodwill for just such a reason. But as soon as Mantis is available (which should be by April, I'm told) I may never chuck another lamp again.
