An Illuminating Idea

A family in Washington Crossing, Pa., is hoping their products will soon brighten households everywhere.

By: Daniel Shearer

"Kent
Kent Malmros with lampshades from the Alexis Kent Collection (from left): Van Gogh’s classic "Starry Night," "Mucha Panels" by French Art Nouveau illustrator and painter Alphonse Maria Mucha, and a prototype shade, "Coastal Breeze," by Vermont-based folk artist Warren Kimble.


   Ocasionally, great ideas really do switch on like a light.
   In the case of one family in Washington Crossing, Pa., the concept wasn’t the light bulb, but an innovative way to decorate one.
   Less than a year ago, Kent Malmros and his father, Mark, started refining an idea with endless marketing possibilities. Since then, the entire family has become part of the project, now called the Alexis Kent Collection, with daughter, Alexis, mother, Debbie, and grandfather, David Paine, all helping to make lampshades.
   Using high-resolution inkjet printers, the Malmroses produce lampshades comparable in quality to fine-art giclée prints. The collection offers a wide variety of images, among them, "On the Beach," a painting by Claude Monet, Van Gogh’s classic "Starry Night," and even full-color and sepia-tone photographs.
   "We had this idea, actually, as a spin-off of something my sister does as a hobby, which is that she likes to do decoupage with furniture," says Kent, sitting around the kitchen table with his family. Willow, a bushy 4-year-old Akita, circles the group, pausing to deliver a few friendly licks.
   "My family was up in Vermont discussing this," Kent continues, "and my father calls me on a cell phone and says, ‘Have you ever seen images on lampshades?’
   "I thought about it for a little while and said, ‘Well, sort of.’ If you look around, you’ll see what we eventually found. You’ll find check patterns and stripes, just sort of isolated screen-printed images, but that wasn’t where my father was going with it. He said, ‘Have you ever seen complex images? Have you ever seen a photograph or a painting, such as a print on a wall, taken and actually put onto a conical lampshade so it doesn’t look cockeyed?’ I said, ‘No, I haven’t,’ and we began to look into it in our free time."
   Although it may be accurate, somehow the term lampshade doesn’t really give an adequate picture of what the Malmroses managed to create. Kent and the family started doing market research — looking at everything from neutral, $15 to $20 fabric shades at Bed, Bath & Beyond, right up to fancier shades that sell for $70 or more at lighting boutiques.
   After floating the idea for a few months, Kent, who married in June, took his engagement photos and used Adobe Photoshop to create a design, along with the quote from their wedding invitation, which he printed and made into a lampshade. Kent’s wife and father-in-law reacted similarly: "Where did you get that?" The answer astonished them: "We made it."

"Closeup
Above, closeup of shade with Van Gogh’s classic "Starry Night."


   "Immediately, there was a sort of receptivity to this," Kent says, "because it looks natural if it’s the right image, the right shade and the right place."
   That’s when the Malmroses started to realize that with the right treatment, almost any image used in home décor could appear on a lampshade.
   "It was a business opportunity that we felt was very real," says Mark, sitting across the table from his son. An entrepreneur for many years, Mark nitiated several ventures during the ’80s and ’90s to develop biosensors with medical and military applications.
   Kent, 24, graduated with a history degree from the University of Pennsylvania, gaining design, management, writing and editing experience as sports editor and later executive editor of the Daily Pennsylvanian, U. Penn’s independent student newspaper. Kent took a job doing marketing and public relations work for an Internet investment company, then did work for a company started by his father before devoting his attention to designing and marketing the Alexis Kent Collection.
   Combined with their mutual passion for art, photography and baseball — which comes into play in the form of several sports-themed lampshades — the idea merged their hobbies with expertise acquired from the business world.
   "We had never even in our wildest dreams considered working together," says Kent, glancing at his father. "I was never heading down that road, but we found that we worked together fairly well."
   The Malmroses made lampshades for family and friends. Then, after they felt confident about their construction methods, they decided to purchase a high-resolution digital printer. The family’s current workhorse is an $8,400 printer made by Hewlett Packard, one of two commercial printers they own.
   "This one’s a six-color archival pigment ink system," says Mark, who, in October, along with his son, transformed the project from a hobby to a full-time job.
   The Alexis Kent Collection now has a Web site and full-color catalog with 17 shades, ranging in price from $90 to $120. But rather than building their company solely by selling lampshades, the Malmoroses have set their sights on licensing.

"Ulysses
Above, the Ulysses S. Grant shade, one of two depicting Civil War figures.


   Alexis Kent is conducting negotiations with sports artist Dick Perez, who gave the green light for a prototype lampshade with one of his baseball paintings, along with a contract in the final stages with Vermont-based folk artist Warren Kimble. The Malmroses also are courting famed baby photographer Anne Geddes, but Kent admits that potentially lucrative catch may be a long way off.
   "We’re not even close to a contract with Anne Geddes," says Kent, "but I’ve had an ongoing dialogue with the general manager of her group, and he wants to see some prototypes."
   Downstairs in the family’s basement work area, two Anne Geddes prototype shades, one with a motif of baby-faced flowers and another with baby-face butterflies, await finishing touches.
   "Anne Geddes’ butterflies are pretty much one of the most popular images she has," Kent says. "We’re refining some examples, and we’ve already sent them off for approval. It’s very much alive and kicking."
   Several circular cutting jigs lean against the wall, along with a high-end printer and a binding machine — used to assemble lampshades with metal rings at the top and bottom — at the other end of the room.
   "This binding machine is what a production lampshade manufacturer would use," Kent says. "It’s sort of a converted sewing machine. To make a lampshade, you print it, you cut it, and then you need to put it on rings. Once that’s done, you need to add trim.
   "We all sort of know what to do. I do most of the design, my dad is pretty good at the binding, and my mom and my sister are good at the trim table."
   If all goes well, Alexis Kent may soon break into the museum market. The Malmroses have completed several prototypes that they’re hoping to sell in the gift shop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art when it opens Degas and the Dance in February.
   Even if they don’t sell many lampshades, the family is hoping for a chance to demonstrate the commercial viability of their idea.
   "It’s another place to display and appreciate art," Mark says. "Particularly when it’s backlit, it’s kind of fun.
   "I just like to take new ideas, which are a dime a dozen, follow them through and create opportunity, either in terms of products or applications. I guess it’s in the blood."
For information about the Alexis Kent Collection, call (866) 687-0657. On the Web: www.alexiskent.com