Nature is the ultimate source of inspiration for David Trubridge, and his special interest in nature’s patterns is evident in the POLA light designed in 2016. In 2004, Trubridge traveled to Antarctica on an artist fellowship program in conjunction with Creative New Zealand.

The experience changed Trubridge’s perspective:
Walking out on the sea ice taught me one of my most important lessons in Antarctica – I learned to see in a new way. In the landscapes we normally inhabit, we are surrounded by such an impossible number of details that we can’t begin to see or assimilate them all. Instead we gloss over them and take in only a general, overall impression. But those details are the key to the landscape – its structure and its essence. Out on the ice, you are surrounded by emptiness. Featureless white stretches beyond sight. Your eyes, accustomed to a surfeit of information, nervously search for something to settle on, and so you start to notice every tiny detail.

Years later, this attention to detail and interest in the remote and ecologically delicate frozen environment led to the creation of POLA. The intricate, snowflake-shaped component pieces, 92 of which create the POLA form, are based on snowflake patterns and cast dramatic shadows. POLA is the opposite of SOLA, designed in 2010, with pieces reminiscent of solar flares.