Lamps inspired by a Hardware Store

There’s a famous quote from Pablo Picasso:

-- “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”

Many interpret this to mean that inspiration isn’t something you wait for — it comes to those who show up and create, day after day.

Today, I wanted to share a story that quite literally embodies that mantra.

I’ve been spending more time in New York lately and met an Industrial Design student named Vicente Barrera at an event. He told me about his recent passion: designing light fixtures using whatever he could find at the hardware store where he worked. Since he could purchase materials wholesale, he built lamps on a budget — each one born from creativity within constraint.

It was such an inspiring challenge — a perfect blend of artistry and practicality, shaped entirely by the limited yet imaginative materials around him.

Vicente, and two of his Monos lamp shade designs

It was clear from his designs that inspiration had quite literally found Vicente while he was working.

I thought he’d be the perfect person to design new Monos lamp shades. We originally designed Monos to have interchangeable shades, but our team has been too busy to create new ones ourselves.

So, we shipped Vicente a Monos. A few weeks later, he sent back his creations — and we were blown away. His designs are raw, industrial, and a striking counterbalance to the futuristic, minimal, and colorful Monos core. You can see some of his work below.

Monos Shade 01

Monos Shade 02

Monos Shade 03

Monos Shade 04

Monos Shade 05

We’ll be sharing more soon about each lamp Vicente designed, and the inspiration behind them. Stay tuned.

Aaron | co-founder, Fluora