Pro Retro Lamp Design Contest
Presented by Fluora and IDSA New York
Overview
Design a lamp shade that uses a Monos, a new type of light, as its lighting source. If your design is selected as a finalist, you’ll get the chance to actually build your lamp shade, where it will be exhibited at Collectible Design NYC — one of the most prestigious design fairs in the country — and offered for sale at the show.
Finalists may also have the opportunity to collaborate with Fluora to make their design into a full blown product offering for consumers.
24 submissions will be chosen as finalists to receive a physical Monos light, and build the lamp shade they designed to be illuminated by the Monos.
Designs will be tailored to the exhibition theme Pro Retro, exploring how lighting reflects the history of each owner as it is passed down across generations.
Submit your design here!
Who Should Apply?
Designers, Engineers, Artists, Metalworkers, glassblowers, ceramicists, woodworkers, DIY Lamp enthusiasts, and anyone else who feels called to design a lamp shade!
What you’re Designing
A freestanding lamp, either one that sits on the Floor, or one that sits on a table. The lamp is yours to design in full. The main requirements are:
- The Design must use a Monos as its light source
- You must believe you can physically make a single unit of your Design if you are chosen as a finalist
- After being selected as a finalist, you must provide a shipping address to receive your Monos, build your lamp, and ship or deliver your lamp to us in New York City by October 25th, in order to be displayed at Collectible starting November 5th.
For designs, you can submit anything that gets your idea across to the submission team - renders, a 3D model, computer aided design drawings, sketches, references images, etc.
The light source has built in attachment points at the base.
We also have a round base attachment that can be used to attach a circular lamp shade to the Monos base.
See 3D files and assets to assist in designs here.
Your design does not need to attach directly to the Monos, it can simply sit over it, or hold it another way.
Please note: The Pro Retro team will not be assisting any finalists in building or fabricating their lamp shade design. That being said, we are happy to answer questions and make suggestions when possible!
Learn more about the contest rules here.
About the Theme of the exhibit: Pro Retro
Pro Retro explores lighting as vessels for memory and inheritance. Rather than arriving with a fixed story, each lamp is designed to begin one. As it moves through the lives of its owners, it visibly represents their history, anchoring to our lives through meaning.
Championship cups boast the names of each year's victors, family quilts gain a new square with each new generation, these objects reflect all those who came before. In nature, tree rings and sedimentary rock layers visually represent the rich history of environmental change. Similarly, the lighting of Pro Retro will stimulate interactions that leave visual markers from each generation, creating a lasting visual provenance.
In a world where stylistic changes render off-trend yet completely functional objects obsolete, Pro Retro aspires to guard against waste by infusing these lighting designs with meaning.
About Monos
Monos is a rectangular cube-shaped light module with 256 individually addressable LEDs across five faces.
What makes this light source special is that it feels like a living, breathing organism. It’s driven by a dynamic, 3 dimensional lighting engine that can produce mesmerizing and diverse lighting animations for any mood or occasion.
The animations Monos display can be selected and customized by the Fluora mobile app. It’s also interactive, and can display music reactive animations, and be gesture controlled — wave your hand to turn it on and off.
The “stock” Monos lamp shade is made from Acrylic, and can be shipped to finalists upon request to use as a reference.
Monos Specifications
- Monos Core Dimensions: 61mm square base at bottom, tapering slightly to 55.5mm square base. 240mm tall.
- See more specifications on the Fluora Website
What you win
If you are selected as one of 24 finalists, you will receive a free Monos (retail $129).
You will then need to physically make your lamp shade around the Monos, and submit it to the Pro Retro team.
All lamps that are submitted in time will be exhibited at Collectible Design NYC in the NEW GARDE section.
Your lamp will be offered for sale at the fair, with proceeds being split 50% to you, and 50% to the Pro Retro team.
Your lamp will also be considered for a paid licensing deal to produce your design as a limited edition Monos consumer product.
As an artist, you will also receive exposure to the collectors, press, and galleries who attend Collectible - your name will be on the lamp you designed!
If you're not selected: you'll receive a discount code for a Monos, and you're still welcome to develop and submit your shade design to Fluora for a possible collaboration!
About the Exhibit
The lamps designed by finalists will be exhibited at Collectible NYC, a design fair in New York City between November 5-8th, 2026.
It’s the only fair in the world dedicated to contemporary, 21st-century collectible design — unique pieces, bespoke commissions, and very limited editions — with no vintage or historical work allowed in.
The exhibit will occupy 100 square feet in the NEW GARDE section, centered around physical spaces to digital platforms, as well as initiatives rooted in alternative or domestic contexts;the section highlights new structures shaping the field today.
The attending crowd are architects, interior designers, art collectors and curators, developers and hospitality professionals.
This is a high end design fair - where works from top artists around the world will be featured and for sale.
Finalists will work with the Pro Retro team to price their lamp for sale at the exhibit, and will also receive artist credit for their lamp.
The Pro Retro team will curate the 100 square foot exhibit that will display all the finalist’s lamps.
Contest Criteria
Design Submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria, for a maximum score of 35 points
- Lamp concept and design: 0-10 points
- Artist/Designer’s ability and strength of past work: 0-10 points
- Materials used in lamp design: 0-5 points
- Lamp Concept’s relation to Exhibit theme: 0-5 points
- Lamp Concept’s ability to enhance the unique light source: 0-5 points
- 24 finalists will be chosen from the applicants that have the highest scores based off this criteria.
Timeline
- August 7 - October 1, 2026: Submissions open
- October 3, 2026: Finalists announced
- October 28, 2026: Finished lamps due, physically delivered to NYC location TBD.
- November 5-8, 2026: Lamps are exhibited at Collectible Design NYC
Who's behind this?
This contest and exhibit is being put on by the Pro Retro team, a collaboration between Fluora, the Industrial Designers Society of America, with the exhibit curated by Not For Granted Studio and produced by Shift Alt Events.
Fluora
Fluora is an attempt to bring the magic of immersive experiences indoors with a consumer product line. Developed by artists, engineers and designers at Color+light, a collective that has spent the last 10 years creating larger than life LED Art installations all around the world. These lighting products are driven by a dynamic, 3 dimensional lighting engine that can produce mesmerizing and diverse lighting animations for any mood or occasion. There are currently three products in the Fluora product line. Our latest product Monos has a lighting core that is our version of a light bulb - an elemental lighting fixture made up of 256 individually addressable LEDs. This lighting core is the fixture that designers will be submitting lamp shade designs for.
IDSA New York
IDSA New York is the local chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America — the oldest industrial design professional association in the world, a 501(c)(6) nonprofit. This is the chapter's first group exhibition.
How to submit
Submit your design by September 15, using the link here. You're submitting a proposal, not a finished lamp — sketches, renders, or reference photos of past work are all acceptable.
If you have questions, please reach out to fluora@colorandlight.art
FAQ:
Where can I learn more about the contest rules?
Can I Apply if I live outside the United States?
- Yes! There is one caveat, if you are chosen as a finalist and do not live in the USA, you will need to pay for all shipping costs and import fees to get your Monos shipped to you to design the shade
Does the lamp shade need to attach to Monos?
- No it does not. We have mounting grooves, and an optional round base attachment you can use if you would like.
What happens if my lamp does not sell at Collectible?
- Finished lamps will be offered for sale during the exhibition on a consignment basis. Title remains with the designer until sale.
- Unsold work must be collected or return shipping arranged by the designer within [30] days of the close of the fair.
Who owns my lamp design after I submit it?
- You retain full ownership of your design.
- Fluora may wish to produce selected designs as limited edition products.
- Any such production requires a separate written agreement, individually negotiated, including compensation to the designer. Nothing in these terms obligates you to enter into such an agreement, and nothing obligates Fluora to offer one.
Can I submit multiple designs?
- Yes
Can multiple people collaborate on one design submission?
- Yes
Can I keep the Monos Core if I am selected as a finalist?
- Yes, we can let finalists keep their Monos cores upon request as long as they finish building their lamp and ship it to us by the due date.