Making electric lighting part of daily life, however, moved much more slowly. Progress was hampered for several years by historical events, as international conflicts slowed the technology development of private industries.

In any case, the production of lighting elements has always been a challange to designers, and one accepted with fascination and awe. The story of lighting design is the story of design itself. Complex and convoluted, the balance between form and fuction has always been a difficult issue.

During the 192O's, for example, illumination technology was improved upon and standardized. But while for some designers and manufacturers, design was utilitarian, others contrasted greatly, employing the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic designs inspired by Art Nouveau and Art Deco, precisely for hiding the primary function of the lamp. The lighting fixture as a decorating accessory.

The following years were marked by the functionalist period which pervaded over the fields of art, design and architecture. The lamp finally finds a unity during this period, a development fathered by designers Pietro Chiesa, the Castiglioni brothers and Gino Sarfatti as well as the enterprises of Fontana Arte, O-Luce, Artemide and Flos.

With the passage of years and the events connected to the international success obtained by Italian design, a plethora of manufacturers and articles flooded the market, overloading it wtih an confusing array of designs, giving rise to the eclectic form-trends of the '8O's minimalism, post-modernism, primitive art, naif art, modern craftsmanship and resurgeance of Art Nouveau.

Although these trends were wildly experimental and often met with little success, international acclaim around Italian lighting design never ceased.

	1881, Milano: The musical production "Il Ballo Excelsior" celebrates the emerging potential of electric lighting. Music by R. Marenco, coreographed by L. Marizotti
ca. 1925: Suspended lighting manufactured by Candle illuminates working areas. This same article, with some modification, is still in production today.
	The "Tolomeo" lamp designed by De Lucchi and Fassina (Artemide, 1988) is a perfect example of Re-design, or the modification of an existing object. In this case, the famous "Naskalloris " by Jacobsen (Luxo)
Achille Castiglioni with the "Ipotenusa" lamp (Flos, 1976) realized a lamp whose cord was connected to a base containing the transformer, while the bulb fixture was connected to an arm or pole, which served as a coaxial conductor.
	"Iride" designed by Pierluigi Nicolin (Artemide, 1996) Artemide envisions a future which holds solar-identical lighting activated by remote-control. The effect is produced by blending three individually filtered lights with one brignt white, thus obtaining thousands of variations.
With its "Mi-TO" collection, Milan's largest producers of lights and lighting products, Artemide, has introduced a line of lamps which diverge completely from traditional decorative design features, such as the use of chrystals and Venetian glass techniques.