Since I was a child, I used to craft lamps and candle holders using unusual materials for that time (the 1980s): chalk, copper, lead enriched with sea glass-stones found on the Ionian coast where I grew up.
A passion for light that slowly grew, completed by notes of design and a thirst for knowledge about materials, their use, and their behavior.
However, there comes a time when life, for obvious reasons of survival, detaches you from your passions.
In 1989, I left Calabria and moved to Turin, where I was hired as a designer at the Morelli Picentino Associati architecture studio. At the same time, I attended the Guarino Guarini Institute. During my years in Piemonte, I designed and produced some pendant and floor lamps.
In 1999, I was offered the position of technical director at a company developing a chain of restaurants featuring traditional Italian cuisine.
For the next seven years, I supervised countless construction sites, traveling non-stop by plane, car, and train, always accompanied by my trolley and work bag.
In 2006, I was offered the same position in a different sector (residential and hotel projects) in Romania. I accepted and continued life as usual until my son Riccardo was born in 2010.
A few months after his birth, I realized I couldn’t devote the time to my son that every father, in my opinion, should. So, I took a break to reflect on the next steps in my working life.
After days of thinking, I made my decision: it was time for a change. My lifelong passion for light had to take shape.
I founded Cristofaroluce and began my journey. Unfortunately, the market in the country where I live is very brand-oriented and underestimates the beauty of unknown origins. To survive, I began offering custom lighting systems, achieving great success and acquiring important international brands as clients. But it wasn’t what I had dreamed of.
In 2022, when my daughter Carolina was born, the unthinkable happened: I stepped back from the Romanian market and custom projects. Instead, I focused on developing all the creations I had conceived and designed over the years.
I started a repositioning operation, and after months of agony, my designs began to find success across Europe and the United States.
The courage to start again, coupled with a fair dose of recklessness, has never abandoned me. I will remain the hard-headed Calabrese I have always been, until the end.
This courage has led me to meet incredible people who have added immense value to my passion. Alisa, Paolo, Giovanna, Adela, Simona, Anthony, Diego, Vlad, and Francesca have reinforced my belief that I am on the right path.
Recently, I’ve realized something important about myself: what I do isn’t about simply making light. Anyone can screw in a light bulb. What I aspire to is far more ambitious—to rule the shadows.
Tommaso Cristofaro
