From Richmond to Athens

From Richmond to Athens: The Journey of the Domino Table Lamp

There’s something wonderfully unlikely about seeing an idea that began in a small Richmond, California design studio make its way across the world.

The Domino Table Lamp began the way many Mod-Jestic pieces do: with curiosity, experimentation, and a lot of hands-on problem solving. What started as a workshop prototype slowly evolved through numerous iterations—adjusting proportions, refining materials, rethinking connections, and finding the balance between sculpture and function.

We wanted Domino to feel playful but sophisticated. Its geometric form is built around a simple grid, with mirrored acrylic diffusers, a warm walnut base, metal hardware, and a leather carrying strap coming together in a lamp that can change character depending on where and how it is placed.

Just as important to us is where and how Domino is made.

Mod-Jestic is based in Richmond in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Domino was designed with local, small-scale manufacturing in mind. Its components can be fabricated, assembled, repaired, and replaced individually rather than treating the lamp as a disposable object. That approach has been part of our design philosophy from the beginning: make interesting things, make them thoughtfully, and make them to last.

Then something remarkable happened.

Domino received a 2025 GOOD DESIGN® Award, one of the world's longest-running international design awards. Suddenly, the little lamp we had been developing in our Richmond workshop was part of a much larger international design conversation.

And that journey took us all the way to Athens, Greece, where Domino was exhibited alongside internationally recognized design.

Seeing it there was a surreal moment.

A locally manufactured Bay Area lamp—conceived, prototyped, refined, and assembled by a tiny independent design studio in Richmond—had traveled more than 6,000 miles to be exhibited on an international stage.

For us, that is what makes the story of Domino particularly meaningful. The award is wonderful. The exhibition was extraordinary. But we're equally proud of everything that came before it: the prototypes that didn't quite work, the material experiments, the small adjustments that made a big difference, and the persistence required to turn an idea into a finished object.

Richmond → Athens.

Not a bad journey for a little lamp.

And we're just getting started.

— Mod-Jestic
Richmond, California