Occhio

Innovative. Holistic. Incomparable. Occhio stands for extraordinary design, exceptional quality of light and joy of use on the highest level. Founded in 1999 by Axel Meise, the company started out with a simple yet revolutionary concept: to create a luminaire system universal in design and quality of light, offering the ideal solution for every spatial requirement – and to enable people to become the lighting designers of their lives. Today Occhio is one of the most innovative and fastest growing companies and has evolved from a German design icon into an international lifestyle brand

Light has always fascinated Axel Meise. He turned this passion into his profession at an early stage. The ultimate aim of the Düsseldorf native: To use the power of light to improve the quality of people’s lives and to open up entirely new possibilities in lighting design for them. As a student and later as a designer and lighting designer, his goal was to offer his customers a concept that is holistic in design and quality of light – and he was frustrated by what he saw in the market: Wherever he looked, he found many individual solutions, styles, surfaces and qualities, but no universal system. Against this backdrop, Meise developed his vision – and came up with an idea that had potential: the Occhio body-head luminaire system.

During the mid-1990s at the idyllic Wiener Platz in Munich’s Haidhausen neighborhood, Meise made the first sketches for his revolutionary luminaire system that represented the essence of his years-long passion for light. Together with design partner and physicist Christoph Kügler, he developed a comprehensive, modular system of luminaires with interchangeable reflector heads that could be combined in any number of ways to give users the ideal lighting solution for virtually any situation in both the home and commercial settings. Both then and now, this was a radical approach to aesthetics and design coupled with sophisticated technology that centers around the needs of the user at all times.

This effort gave birth to a business idea, an invention and a rapid success story. The inventor gave his first product, and later his company, the name Occhio, Italian for “eye”. “Occhio’s recipe for success is our focus on the essentials,” explains Axel Meise, “we distribute a few systems rather than many individual luminaires. This allows us to go deeper into every detail and focus on product quality, as well as to refine our product presentation and marketing.”

- Becoming a market leader – in the fast lane

- The transformation – Light goes high-tech

- From a German design icon to an international lifestyle brand