The Lighting Luminary

Mr. Meise, how would you describe yourself?

I’m pretty crazy, actually, but that’s part of my job. For my sixtieth birthday, my children gave me a picture that says, “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” It’s a quote from Steve Jobs. Except that here, they’ve added “stay creative”. To be sure, it isn’t enough to stay hungry. There are other things that can ­motivate you as well. Like dissatisfaction. That may sound negative, but I think dissatisfaction is an important ­motivating factor for me.

Can you explain that in more detail?

II’m never satisfied with the status quo. That’s why I started Occhio. I’m totally convinced that you can always do more if you want to combine innovation with design, to create something truly new. The product has to give people something they haven’t seen before and that will improve their lives. And you have to be a little crazy to be able to do that without compromise.

You once said that Occhio owes its success to the fact that you think differently from all the other brands. Does that also have to do with dissatisfaction?

That, plus the matter of differentiation. I’m really bored when I make things that already exist. It’s a matter of thinking completely differently. I could quote Steve Jobs here again: “Think different.” You have to question the status quo, combine things in different new ways, take a disruptive approach.

And what is the second step?

The next thing I do is that I ask myself what I expect from a luminaire and what brings comfort and a certain sense of luxury to people. The answer is to control the light with gestures instead of getting up and looking for the dimmer. To be able to adjust the light and its color as you wish, to dim the light in a room from top to bottom whenever you want.

Without electronics, all of these functional ideas and fascinating possibilities for controlling and operating the lights, for connecting with Smart Home or the Occhio Air app, wouldn’t work. Lighting without control is only half the battle – perhaps even less than half. I think that was our game changer in the industry. And because we thought differently at that point, we positioned ourselves differently. And because we positioned ourselves differently, we can continue to think differently and to develop things that haven’t been done before. For me, that’s where all the fun is at.

You mentioned luxury earlier. What do you associate with the word luxury?

That’s a very tricky question. In Germany, luxury is often seen as excessive, superfluous and overpriced. In the U.S. and the U.K., they see things differently, much more positively. Luxury is seen as added value, as beauty, as something special. I think I’m more like that myself. I don’t think luxury necessarily means ( … )

→ Read the entire interview in rampstyle #30.