For Leonardo Menicucci, design takes shape through the interplay of form, material and technology, where creative freedom meets a thoughtful, practical approach to design. Light becomes a language of its own, engaging with architecture, transforming spaces and shaping their identity.
An Italian product designer with a degree from ISIA Roma Design, Menicucci explores the relationship between aesthetic sensibility, material experimentation and the art of making. This perspective is central to his role as R&D Manager at Slamp, where he leads the development of new collections and custom and bespoke lighting projects, bringing creative ideas to life through every stage of the design process.
His approach to innovation goes beyond technology, seeking new ways to experience light and creating a natural harmony between aesthetics and function.
On the surface, Koi is pure stillness:
a suspended cylinder of light, essential and solid.
Beneath, something stirs.
The rigor of the diffuser’s form finds its counterpoint in the enameled copper electric wire, never quite the same twice, shaped by hand with an instinctive gesture, like skimming the water and leaving a free, fluid line in its wake. A flicker of colour carries from the wires to the end caps, drawing every element of the lamp into one seamless whole.
In Leonardo Menicucci’s vision, balance and movement coexist in a single design gesture.
“Koi is born from the meeting of pragmatism and poetry: a pure form concealing precise technical design, conceived to control, diffuse and enhance light. An essential quality inspired by Japanese culture, where function, gesture and beauty become one.”
Leonardo Menicucci
Suspended, minimal, alive.
Koi’s luminous surface holds a texture reminiscent of the ever-changing markings of a koi carp.
Not a printed pattern, but an optical effect: three layers of Lentiflex® overlap and, as light passes through them, create reflections that shift with the viewing angle and light intensity. It is light itself that draws upon the material, in a continuous play of transparency and movement.