Nurtured by an imagery inspired by Jodorowsky’s interpretation of the cult science-fiction novel Dune, Douglas Mont is not American, but very much French. One of his distant great-uncles, G.L. Rispal, founded the Paris-based company Rispal in 1924. Specialising in reasonably priced lighting, the company enjoyed decades of success and built up a catalogue of hundreds of designs before finally turning out the lights in 1982.