The Traverse table, designed by Rainlight and manufactured by Okamura. While up to 20 feet long, its tabletop is less than 1.25 inches at its thickest point. Courtesy Rainlight
For Susan Grossinger and Yorgo Lykouria, helping to make products that enhance the ways people live and work has always been the goal of their collaborations. Grossinger, the business mind, and Lykouria, the creator, hit it off when they first met in 2014 while both were working for global design and architecture firm HOK. Now they are continuing their partnership as the founders of Rainlight, a spin-off of HOK’s product design branch.
Gather, manufactured by Allsteel, supports collaboration and multifunctional use. Courtesy Rainlight
Although the pair’s careers have spanned interiors and architecture, Rainlight is dedicated solely to the design of products, pure and simple. “We have started Rainlight to really focus on being authentic to who we are, which is a boutique-size product design studio,” says Grossinger.
Rainlight’s name reflects its unique ethos and appreciation for the environment. “When we talk about a fresh product, it’s not about something that just looks different,” explains Lykouria. “It actually works differently, or it behaves differently, or it forces the user to interact with this object in a different way. It then heightens the moment and makes you more aware of reality, in the same way that nature does.”