Low-energy bulb wins Oscar of design world

British designer Samuel Wilkinson and product design company Hulger won the Brit Insurance Design of the year award for the Plumen 001, a low-energy light bulb, beating 90 other entries.

''The Plumen light bulb is a good example of the ordinary thing done extraordinarily well, bringing a small measure of delight to an everyday product,'' said Stephen Bayley, jury chairman, while presenting the award at London's Design Museum.

Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum noted that the bulb was a worthy winner as it is both beautiful and smart. ''It does away with the superfluous to achieve maximum economy of means,'' said Sudjic. ''It's a bulb that doesn't need a shade and so goes a long way to make up for the loss of the Edison original.''

The award-winning bulb uses 80 per cent less energy and lasts eight times longer than an incandescent one.

According to the jury, while low-energy light bulbs were never regarded as a stylish product, the Plumen creates an aesthetic bulb, which works like any low-energy bulb.

According to Will Self, a jury member,  2011 was not a year to reward high-end design devised purely for conceptual reasons or added-value results. ''We felt these bulbs were neat, appealing and covetable in the right, affordable way,'' said Self, also a novelist. ''Light is, of course, primary to design, without it there can be very little, if any. The design of light sources is thus an elemental component of a design aesthetic.''