Style is built on associations, and few folks alive in the 80s (or even 90s) can forget the feeling of putting in a magnetic tape to play their favorite tunes … or the sinking sensation of an analogue player eating your unique mix of radio-recorded tracks.

This refined design known simply as the TapeLamp plays on our memory, but lets you play with it directly as well – each little tape can be wound left or right, changing the look and satisfying our urge to tinker.

The lamp frame is minimalist and unobtrusive. A single laser-cut, plexi-glass sheet matches the clear plastic of the tapes that slot inside the spaces. Curves toward each corner make for small supports without adding separate legs.

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This is not the first design featured here to include recycled retro cassettes, but offers a somewhat different take – rather than reusing, mixing and matching, the process is incredibly controlled and the product correspondingly more refined. Neither is necessarily better – perhaps one of each would work best, for the classical-music fan on the one hand and the punk rocker or metal head on the other.