Studio Gruhl on positioning a lighting brand between craft and precision

Many lighting brands present themselves as clean and clinical architectural systems, or they lean into the workshop narrative – all hand-tooled warmth and maker’s marks. MOSS Objects, a German independent lighting brand founded by designer Daniel Becker, occupies a deliberate middle ground. The luminaires are engineered with modular precision, built as systems capable of evolving and adapting within a space, yet each piece carries a quiet sculptural presence shaped by aluminium, brass, steel and oak. Studio Gruhl developed the brand’s identity to hold both of these qualities in tension, rooted in what Founder & Creative Director Malte Gruhl describes as “Technical Poise.” The concept emerged from close study of how the lighting sector positions itself. “Most brands appear sterile and technical or overly organic,” Gruhl explains. “Our research led us to position MOSS as a brand that values the precision of a laboratory but possesses the soul of a sculpture.” This informed every decision that followed – from the logomark to the colour palette to how the products are photographed. The identity needed to feel engineered and intentional without suppressing the fact that the objects are handmade by specialist workshops. The custom-drawn logomark moves away from the rigid geometric forms common across industrial design branding. Its fluid, interlocking lines provide an organic counterpoint to the sharp materiality of the products themselves. “It is intended to feel like a timeless signature that still holds character, connecting human craft within a technical framework,” Gruhl shares. This tension – between the expressive mark and the precise objects it represents – mirrors the broader positioning of the brand.