He combines his knowledge of light with his experiences in marketing and sales to combat diseases such as dementia. His weapon: a dynamic daylight lamp.
In 2014, Maarten Voorhuis, in collaboration with us, developed the floor lamp Bright Brenda under the brand name Sparckel. With this dynamic lamp you will experience a spring feeling all year round. The light of 1,000 lux has a proven positive effect on your energy, mood and sleep. Healthy light for indoors, that’s Sparckel in short. Our past collaboration aroused curiosity in me. I went to visit him on the High Tech Campus for some short questions about our long-term collaboration.
Why do you value innovation and product development?
Maarten: Both in science and in practice there is a lot of unknown about the positive effect of dynamic daylight. Yet stories of depression, dementia, sleep, mood and behavior continue to grow. It arouses frustration that the functioning of the dynamic light has not yet found its way to the market. With a multidisciplinary team that understands state-of-the-art LED technology, software, optics and design, we looked for a solution that people would embrace. Together we developed the world’s first plug & play dynamic lamp that really works for your health. Isn’t it cool that we do that here in the city of light Eindhoven?!
Tell us about our collaboration
Maarten: From the start, the designers of GBO Innovation makers believed in the concept. Jacques Gramser then told me: ‘We see a lot of ideas come along, but we can’t work them all out. We choose ideas we believe in. Meaningful, relevant and beautiful ideas. Sparckel was such an idea.”
Faith was crucial to get the concept off the ground. Ultimately, the concept grew into a complete collection and we double our turnover every year. The design has been awarded a GIO Recognition and the lamp has often appeared in the media, including the NOS and RTL Nieuws. Rightly so, because problems with our biological clock simply deserve more attention. Feeling low on energy, having poor sleep, and a gloomy mood are symptoms that continue to increase. Our ambition goes further than solving these problems in the Netherlands. We are going international, think of Germany and Scandinavia. To realize this, we are currently looking for additional funding.
Want to share your highlight in our collaboration with us?
Maarten: As part of the market research, we showed the concept sketches to vision-rich people and tried to estimate which design gets the best traction in the market. Sometimes you have to make though choices and in our case we went back to the drawing board. The designers of GBO Innovation makers have handled this process very well. The final design has a restrained form factor that many people appreciate: elegant natural shapes that match the ‘inspired by nature’ philosophy.
In 2015, the design was awarded a ‘Goed Industrieel Ontwerp’ recognition during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. Especially the user-friendly and simple operating ring was praised by the jury. Still, the best compliment remains every time I hear positive feedback from the customers like: ‘the light really works’ or ‘the lamp is beautiful’.
Now, a few years later, we still see each other regularly. We are both proactively involved in the ecosystem of the Brainport region. As soon as an opportunity arises, we know where to find each other.