Design's Shining Light

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But Maurer is not on the periphery of the industry. Rather, from an early age he focused on becoming a successful entrepreneur, developing new technologies to realize his visions. Products such as the MaMo Nouchies series and the Campari Light, a deep-red lamp composed of clustered Campari soda bottles, are now staples of posh, design-focused outlets such as Design Within Reach and are also available from his SoHo boutique, a retail store that opened in 1999. Pieces range in price from several hundred to many tens of thousands of dollars.

"He's in a category by himself because the fixtures are so unusual," says Bonnie Fogel, co-owner of the tony online modern furniture outlet UnicaHome.com. "It's not a standard company because the lighting itself is an architectural element. It's more than light."

LED'ing by Example

In the 1980s, Maurer pioneered a low-voltage halogen lighting and cabling scheme, dubbed YaYaHo, which set the standard for the industry. More recently, he's been at the forefront of development of light-emitting diode technology, and his pioneering experimentation has led the way for others to follow. LEDs are quickly becoming a technology du jour, hailed for their longevity and relatively sustainable qualities and showing up in a vast array of new designs from the headlamps of Audi (VLKAF) cars to Herman Miller's (MLHR) award-winning LEAF lamp.

A series of Maurer's LED pieces is on display at the Cooper-Hewitt show, his first solo museum exhibit in the U.S. Some embed hundreds of pulsing lights in transparent tables and benches. For the first time, he is also showing a prototype of LED wallpaper, the material comprising an intricate pattern of the small, light-emitting semiconductors. Maurer claims it's the thinnest application of the technology in the world, and he is in talks with various potential partners to begin commercial production and distribution.

With the U.S. exhibition as a platform, Maurer has now turned his attention toward minimizing the energy footprint of some lighting. He is working on perfecting a more energy-efficient version of LED technology—organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). These OLEDS could be embedded in thin, flexible materials and programmed to change color. Maurer champions this technology to counter the current trend for compact-fluorescent lighting. While acknowledging the need for energy-efficient developments within the industry, he believes compact fluorescents provide "boring" light—and move the industry in the wrong direction.

It's a characteristically strong opinion from a man who, despite having passed retirement age some time ago, refuses to slow down just yet. His status as an artist has been solidified by a series of worldwide museum exhibitions, held at artistic centers such as the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Museu de Arte Brasileira in Sao Paulo. And he remains a guiding light for other designers.

Matt Vella is a writer for BusinessWeek.com in New York.