At the Light&Building fair, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors and Ingo Maurer have unveiled a revolutionary lighting application based on OLEDs. The company has made prototypes of organic light emitting diodes available to the designer for his exclusive creation. “We are proud that our OLEDs have inspired such a renowned artist as Ingo Maurer to create such an exciting work of art. “Early Future” is a vision that has become reality. It gives us a glimpse of just how versatile organic OLEDs can be in terms of their design options and applications”, said Martin Goetzeler, CEO of OSRAM.

The renowned lighting designer Ingo Maurer is the first to use organic LEDs (OLEDs) from OSRAM in a function table light. The light, called “Early Future”, is being produced as a limited edition. It works with tiles straight from the laboratory and demonstrates the enormous potential of OLEDs for future applications as eye-catching illumination and design elements.

For Maurer, unusual design is not an end in itself. “Early Future represents an important stage in the transition from abstract object to functional designer lighting”, he said. Maurer has been shaping developments in light as art and lighting design for many years. In 1966 he exhibited the designer luminaire Bulb which has been on show in the New York Museum of Modern Art since 1969 along with other works of his. Ingo Maurer has received numerous awards for his avant-garde work with light.

Organic LEDs offer all the familiar benefits of LEDs such as high energy efficiency, low operating voltage and mercury-free design. The light source is not a collection of individual light points but a uniform light-generating surface.