Featherweight and ethereal, the ideal whipped topping is airy, yet firm, boasting the perfect stiff peak. And when it comes to tasty visual treats, the Stockholm-based design studio Crème Atelier cooks up a delicious and delightful play on soft serve ice cream with their delectable collection of colorful lights – and an origin story equally as sweet. Originally inspired by the founders’ home renovation journey, the couple and creative duo conceptualized the Portable Soft Serve Lamp’s whimsical, meringue-like silhouette when imagining solutions for architectural niches in need of ambiance.
Each luminary confection is made-to-order and manufactured in Sweden on demand through local 3D printing, which requires only six hours from start to finish. The concoction’s entire swirling shape is made using bioplastic – rPLA filaments extracted from corn starch and recycled food packaging pulled from Holland’s waste stream – in an additive process, layer by layer to avoid material spill. This method also leans into the form’s organic nature, giving the final artifact textural richness and an ever-so-slight variation in hue through its ridges. This à la carte business model not only keeps storage costs down for the brand while avoiding production in excess, it is also indicative of Crème Atelier’s commitment to sustainability from cradle-to-cradle.
A mélange of 11 saccharine colorways from sweet to savory will whet your appetite when selecting from the menu, which includes five tone-on-tone options aptly given the suffix “sorbet,” as well as six others that are an amalgam of white hats with colored bases.
The Soft Serve Portable is part of a broader collection preceded by regular and grande corded editions already in the works. But this petite, pint-sized object stands roughy 9 inches (approximately 23 centimeters) tall, comes with a textile magnetic micro USB cable on the side, and utilizes an LED light source. This indoor device is rated for 10 hours of illumination when fully charged, with a roughly eight hour wait to reach a full battery, and is dimmable to three different levels of brightness: 100%, 65%, and 35%.
What’s more, this design is highly lauded receiving numerous accolades including winner of German Design Award 2024 “Excellent Product Design – Lighting”, Scandinavian Design Awards 2023 “Detail of the year”, Plaza Interiors Sustainability awards 2022, and Iconic awards 2024 “Lighting”.
Hungry for more? Visit creme-atelier.com to learn more or pre-order, with deliveries scheduled for September 2nd, 2024.
