Eco-friendly light bulb wins design award

A British designer has won an award for a sculpted, low-energy light bulb. The Plumen bulb
won the Design of the Year award in a competition run by London’s Design Museum. The
bulb is said to last eight times longer than a traditional light bulb. Will Gompertz reports.
Reporter: Now here is a bright idea – a designer, low-energy light bulb. So now, if you want
to illuminate your home in an eco-friendly fashion, you have this curvaceous choice. The
designers spent a great deal of time worrying about what might turn people on, and what
might turn them off.
Their quest was to marry practicality, something that actually works, with a sense of style
and beauty, to create an object of desire. Something that you not only wanted to own, but
hopefully also wanted to keep.
Nicolas Roope: And that’s really the role of the designer, I think, is to make objects that
people really connect with and really cherish, you know. I think that’s one of our roles, and
obviously in this case this isn’t just about prettifying. This is about, you know, obviously, the
underlying problem of getting people to adopt this stuff, because obviously that’s in
everybody’s interests.
Reporter: That is if money is not too much of an issue – funky costs. Each one is nearly £20.
That’s up to twenty times the price of some other low-energy bulbs.
It’s too early to judge if this product has a dazzling future, but its creators will be reassured to
know that at least one major household goods retailer said its customers did not consider light
bulbs dull. In fact, to them, design matters.
Will Gompertz, BBC News

Vocabulary and definitions

a bright idea	a clever and original thought
an eco-friendly fashion	a way which tries not to damage the environment
curvaceous	curvy in its shape and pleasing to look at (often used to describe a woman’s body)
turn people on	here, make people excited and interested
to marry	here, to join or bring together
cherish	value and care for
the underlying problem	the basic or fundamental difficulty
to adopt	here, to decide to make use of, or own
dazzling	very impressive or highly promising
dull	here, boring

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