RBW
RBW is a New York company that designs and makes its own lighting: glass sconces, pendants and chandeliers, several of them configured to suit the room. We carry the full RBW lighting range in Ottawa.
Selected pieces
Three designers and an early bet on LED
RBW was founded in 2007 by Theo Richardson, Charles Brill and Alexander Williams, as Rich Brilliant Willing. In 2011 it moved early into LED, and RBW says the team “designed from the technology outward” instead of fitting LEDs into old forms.
From Brooklyn to a factory in Kingston
After a move to Gowanus, Brooklyn, in 2013, RBW launched Palindrome, which it calls one of its most iconic designs. It became a certified B Corporation in 2019, and today it designs and manufactures in a 100,000-square-foot facility in Kingston, New York, with a flagship showroom in Tribeca.
Glass that does the work
Several RBW designs are built around solid cast glass. Dimple is named for the thick, domed diffuser on its face, which renders its LED into a soft glow with what RBW calls “an orb-like, optical pattern”. Crisp has a scored glass shade and works on a wall or a ceiling, and outdoors in a version sealed against water and dust, and Crepe, made with Little Wing Lee of Studio & Projects, layers a glass diffuser and shade.
Pieces that fit the room
Several RBW designs are configured to the space. Palindrome‘s tubular steel arms rotate to suit the room. Cinema stacks rings of four, six or eight feet in up to three tiers, and Vitis hangs one, three, five or seven blown-glass orbs from flexible, translucent cables at different heights.
Shades, globes and sailcloth
Gala hides its power cords inside slim suspension cables, and its hand-blown globes hang like fruit. Bon, designed with Alex Brokamp, puts a felt shade over a glass globe, AllSew borrows from lanterns and kites in sailcloth, and Pastille echoes Art Deco, with custom hand-painted signage, and braille on the Wayfind version.
Talk to us about RBW
Whether you’re specifying for a client or choosing for your own home, get in touch, and we’ll go through the full RBW range with you.