British inventor puts stylish spin on cordless lamps, including a 24-carat gold one
The brand Alexander Joseph developed new bulbs and long-life battery configurations for designs by in-house and up-and-coming designers
Tell us about yourself. “I come up with first-to-market inventions, make businesses around them and either keep trading or sell them. Within my businesses I have electronics guys, mechanical engineers, scientists … so, a pool of resources.
“A couple of years ago, my wife and I moved to a big house where the furniture would be in the middle of rooms, rather than against the walls. We wanted lighting on side tables and I can’t stand cords. We were after elegant, decorative lamps, and all we could find were little ones you might get in a restaurant, or novelty garden ones.
“We used an interior designer on the project, and after the first couple of lamps, she said, ‘You’ve got to make and sell these.’ I went about making something that would be saleable around the world. Alexander Joseph started trading 12 months ago.”
Who’s buying? “Our biggest market is home interiors. We also sell to superyacht owners and builders, property developers that build large, expensive houses, and five-star hotels – all markets where design is prevalent.”
The biggest challenge? “The difficulty with cordless lamps is that they require batteries, and no matter how you use them, they won’t give you the endurance you need for a quality product. So how do you make a viable alternative to a conventional plug, when battery cell technology doesn’t allow that? These things are incredibly difficult and expensive to overcome. The investment is high and there is some risk. It’s not something a normal artisan business would do.”
