LZF was born from the imagination, passion and work of its founders Mariví Calvo and Sandro Tothill, who in 1994 created a small lighting workshop, which moved to an old renovated winery in 2008 in the Valencian town of Chiva, and which today captivates the whole world with lamps that feature harmonious, elegant and unique designs.
Sustainability and craftsmanship.
Since the beginning, LZF has always used wood veneer as a distinguishing feature through which the brand expresses the values of commitment to the environment and sustainability. As its founders indicate, they use wood "because it’s an ancestral element, which has to do with nature and fire." For the company, it is essential to interact with the environment by offering an ecological and circular design without losing its intrinsic and functional beauty.
And it is through light, an essential element for human beings, that wood connects intimately with emotions and feelings. Their personal creative vision is one of light enveloped by wood, bringing life to unique high-quality lamps handmade by a team of artisans who use wooden veneer as their raw material. This entirely handcrafted production process was recognized in 2011 with the Spanish National Craftsmanship Award.
Innovation and Design
The company’s commitment to innovation can be seen as early as 2001, when they began researching new treatments for wood and patented a system called "Timberlite" that protects and makes the fragile wood veneer manageable. Their research on the capacity of light to generate and build environments and the technical integration of wood with other materials such as blown glass demonstrate their interest in offering the market products that are being continuously innovated.
Another of the brand's great values for which it is internationally recognized is design. Mariví and Sandro’s work is complemented by the collaboration of renowned designers and young Spanish and international design talents such as Mayice, Mut Design, Ramón Esteve, Isidro Ferrer, Luis Eslava, Yonoh, Estudi{H}ac, Mikiya Kobayasi, Ray Power, Burkhard Dämmer and Burojet, who shape every lamp. Collaboration with designers is fundamental for the brand, "as they help us to approach other points of view, understand the needs of other countries and contrast the possibility of exploring new paths," the company explains.
This commitment to design earned them the National Design Award in 2020, granted by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities in the category "Harmonious, Elegant and Unique Companies." The panel of judges for the award valued LZF's "business strategy focusing on design, creativity and environmental sustainability, with a highly emotional and conceptual emphasis that translates into the perceived high and functional quality of its products." For Mariví Calvo and Sandro Tothill, "it is a great satisfaction to receive the happy news that our work has been recognized with the most coveted design award in our country. Today we feel that design and craftsmanship go hand in hand and that is something very big.”
LZF in the world
LZF exports 75% of their production to the world, its main international markets being the USA and the European Union.
Their lamps can be found in such emblematic projects as the Mercado Little Spain and the restaurants Mi Casa, Jaleo and Fish, owned by chef José Andrés and designed by Juli Capella in New York, Puerto Rico, Washington, Disney Springs Orlando, Maryland and The Bahamas. Their lamps can also be seen in the Californian headquarters of YouTube, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon, in the offices of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, in the offices of BNP in Amsterdam, in the Tele2 Arena Stadium restaurant in Stockholm and in the Los Gatos library of the University of Nevada, among other well-known places. In addition, since 2015, hospitals specializing in curing cancer such as the Baptist Cancer Center in Miami, the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas and Houston, and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York use their lamps to achieve natural, beautiful and relaxing environments that benefit the patient.
In 2020, they opened their own e-shop selling in Europe, and in the USA they have been working for more than 12 years with Y-Lighting.
LZF has a clear and decisive mission and vision as a company, both focused on Sandro and Mariví's mission and personal commitment to research and highlighting the link between craftsmanship and art, new technologies and advanced industrial production. New ways of conceiving design that come, in their particular and singular case, from their sensitivity for art and music, and connect with the transversality of current creative thinking. A business duo that has been working together for more than 25 years, aware of the craftsman’s value and their contemporary weight in the design vision.