Johan Destrumelle

25-year-old Johan Destrumelle is a French artist-designer living in Oise, near Paris. He's only been creating his concrete lamps for six months but has already created a strong voice and aesthetic throughout his pieces.

On the realisation that he'd always been interested in craftsmanship and the manual creation of objects, Johan decided to study a higher diploma in Product Design. This led him to an internship at '& Antimatter', a gallery and studio in Iceland. It was there that he realised he wanted to create his own work; by hand, of course, rather than using industrial machines.

Johan sites pointillism as one of his biggest influences. Pointillism is a technique which uses small dots of colour to form an image. Inspired by the way artists used colour and the texture to create an image, Johan found it to be an influence on his work. Creating sculptures using individual 'dots' of concrete. These beautiful sculptural lamp forms are intended to become a focal point in a room, even with the light off.

Johan told us that his designs start with a drawing or an image of a new form in his head. He then draws them out digitally in order to test out different colours and gradations. Once he's happy with his idea he creates the form of the shape using expanded foam, and from there he builds concrete on the form, point by point, building its concrete shell. The idea of heavy, sturdy concrete is a contrast with the finished look, which reminds us of pieces of popcorn; light and fragile.

Working from a small workshop set-up at home, with music playing in the background and the door slightly open to allow the light and sunshine to pour in, Johan will work in productivity waves; working for 8-10 days in a row and then taking a day or two to clear his mind. He finds this method of working allows him to fully exploit his concentration and admits it can be a struggle at times!

Despite it being early days in his career, Johan has already exhibited in the CollecibleFair in Belgium and has had work exhibited in two galleries, "Galerie Fracas" (Belgium) and "Galerie Philia" (Switzerland).

To find out more about Johan head to his Instagram or to his website. His pieces can also be purchased on 1st dibs