Occhio was founded in 1999 by Axel Meise, who harboured a passion for innovation. Meise built the brand with a holistic approach to design, and the concept was created due to his own struggles in the lighting design field. In the 1990s, he developed lighting concepts for a range of customers and Meise found that the aesthetic and technical proliferation of luminaires and lighting systems on the market often got in the way of good results – so the Occhio system was born.
Axel Meise aims to offer "a better quality of life with light from Occhio", with the company presenting outstanding and innovative designs, focusing on the joy of use. Occhio want their lights to be an experience, presenting lighting solutions that require user interaction in a playful way. They understand that light is an elementary part of our lives, with one of their aims being to replicate natural sunlight as closely as possible in order to form a consistent lighting pattern that turns an illuminated space into a place of well-being.