At Laguna Beach, CA-based industrial design and manufacturing company Cerno, good design all comes down to a clean aesthetic and functionality. The company's product, the Cubo sconce, combines these two key components and adds a modern twist as an ambient light and reading light thanks to a fully articulating arm.
We chatted with Cerno Co-founder and Director of Design Nick Sheridan to learn more about the unique sconce and his design outlook.
Tell us about your background and your experience as Cerno’s Director of Design.
My dad was a contractor and that was my first introduction to designing and building things. He would always say “first you have to draw it” whenever I would begin to build something, which was great advice.
My business partners Bret and Daniel and I have been friends since we were young, and we always loved creating things. Each weekend was a new project or adventure when we were boys. This friendship formed the foundation that Cerno is built on today. After high school, I studied architecture with an academic year abroad in Italy. The immersive and intense years of design school formed my approach to design and my love for modernism. After school I was working in residential architecture and there was a clear void in the marketplace for quality modern lighting, which definitely influenced our decision to pursue lighting.
How would you describe your design style?
When I was studying design, “style” was a bit of a taboo word. A "style" can refer to a specific decorative treatment, while modernism is about no decoration. The guiding design principles at Cerno are rooted in modernism. The word “Cerno” means "to resolve" in Latin. We strive to make clean and resolved light fixtures that use materials honestly. I have always looked up to Mies Van Der Rohe and Le Corbusier (among others) as modernist icons and much of their work inspires me.
Cerno’s fixtures often end up in Mid-Century and contemporary spaces, but we have also seen our lights work well in more traditional environments. We use a lot of American black walnut, which adds warmth to our minimalist forms and we also use a lot of aluminum. The marriage of walnut and aluminum has become a signature part of our aesthetic. Our ambitious goal is to make high-quality and timeless products. There is a real sense of satisfaction that comes from hearing from our customers about how they appreciate the thought and craftsmanship that goes into producing our products.
Where did the inspiration to create Cubo come from? What did the design process look like?
Necessity inspired the Cubo. Prior to the Cubo there were a lot of reading lights available, as well as ambient bedside sconces and table lamps, but few that married this dual functionality well. My business partner Daniel is an avid reader and found himself not wanting to wake his wife while reading with an ambient fixture that lit up the entire room. He came to me with a clear vision, and I went and designed the Cubo. It is an articulate reading light, and when you are not reading, it nests behind a piece of light-diffusing acrylic to become an ambient fixture.
The Cubo is also a great example of our vertically integrated process. From the beginning of Cerno, we have always designed and manufactured everything at our Southern California factory. This practice of me and our design team, the engineers and production team working together from conception through production promotes a cohesive process where the original design intent is always preserved. Had me and Daniel not been working on this together and personally prototyping and producing the first several hundred lights, it would have been challenging to fully resolve this concept. I believe the Cubo along with our other bedside lighting solutions, the Levo and Libri, really showcase Cerno's strengths and ingenuity.
What’s next for Cerno?
We grew a lot over the last few years, which slowed down our design process, but lately we have been working on several new products. The Talea will launch in October. It’s a cantilevering sconce that we are really excited about. We are also introducing a few new flush mounts early next year that were inspired by our Plura flush mount. There is not a shortage of designs and ideas, just time ...
