HIGH STYLE : ‘Look Ma, No Wires’ Desk Lighting

WHEN RICHARD SAPPER went looking for a lightweight, adjustable desk lamp, nothing quite fit the bill. Conventional lamps, with their broad bases and shades, wasted valuable space on the work surface. Drafting lamps, though adjustable, looked ungainly with their tension springs and mounts that clamped onto the desk’s edge. So, as befits the man who is now IBM’s chief product-design consultant, Sapper set out to make a better mousetrap.

Thus was the Tizio born and introduced by Milan-based Artemide in 1972. It has since become a ubiquitous symbol of high design. Counterweights that make the lamp stay put in any position give the Tizio an industrial look--specifically, a vague resemblance to a tone arm or oil-pump rocker beam. Indeed, the slender structure exudes a brittle elegance that belies its four-way flexibility: It swings horizontally on the base and vertically at the reflector joint and two frame pivots.

Sapper’s creation helped popularize the “basic black” high-tech look found on stereo components and professional camera bodies (the Tizio now comes in white as well). More significantly, the Tizio made quartz halogen lighting fashionable in the home; previously the pinkie-size bulb was limited pretty much to movie projectors and automobile headlights. Besides miniaturization--no more need for clunky fixtures--the halogen bulb offers brighter illumination than a conventional incandescent bulb of comparable wattage, and a purer, whiter light (without incandescent’s yellowish cast) that particularly benefits art objects. And the polarized, low-voltage electricity runs directly up the metal frame from the base-mounted transformer to the bulb without presenting a shock hazard. In fact, the Tizio’s “look ma, no wires” virtuosity still provokes double-takes.

Tizio desk lamps are available at Cityscapes in Pasadena , Light Adventure in Newport Beach , Design Express in Los Angeles and Brentwood Lighting in Brentwood. Retail price is $449.