Tuesday 18 October 2011

Project 2: Upcycling Utility - ZEN Light

I originally wanted to make my lamp as simple as it could get as I always thought simple looks the best. In order to get the right lampshade, I have tried various different shapes and techniques. However, as there were quite a few limitations that the project had; including reducing wastage, flat packing, I tried scoring a lot like many other students in order to achieve a variety in shapes. I think having strips lets the lamp to be more organic and active. But strips could make a model to look like a paper structure rather than a lamp; so I wanted to keep the essence of lamp but having strips.

As I have continued to experiment, I wanted to have more variety in my lampshade. So, I thought of using two different techniques in one model. For example, I could have a structure with strips and another structure with totally different technique to make the model less boring and interesting. So, as final lamp model, I have come up with a lamp with two structures; one which is colourful and has a unique shape with strips and another one with white colour that has rather simple shape and structure.

Originally, since the lamp is supposed to be environmentally friendly throughout the entire process from ‘manufacture’ to ‘flat packed’ and lastly ‘deliver’ to users, I wanted to set the concept of the lamp to be natural as well like a lotus. So, for the final lamp, at first attempt, the model was consisted of 4 wide strips but being 4 made the model look quite boxy and boring. Consequently, I have made it to be 6 wide strips which are easy to assemble with total 11 canoe clips and 11 short steel wires. The flat packed model is consisted of 4 wide strips (1000mm x 200mm) and 2 narrower strips (1000mm x 170mm) so that it makes the shape to have more variety within the actual strip structure.

Ultimately, the final lamp has both active, organic structure inside and relaxed and calming structure outside. I liked how the scored strips flow with forming unique volumes when they are hooked with wires. So I named the lampshade after Japanese Zen style as the flow of the lines reminded me of the style a lot.

The inner structure of the lamp is basically all strips so they tend to spread out the light even which may seem quite boring. However, the 3 outer white wing-like units on top of the inner structure block the light to go all over the place but lets it illuminate its white background (including letters and colours on the back). It eventually forms interesting illumination like a star as shown in the product poster. 



6 comments:

  1. this light has a good use of cut outs and simple cutting diagram. adding more of the shape could add to a sense of complexity which may improve its overall impresssion

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  2. this light nice as it reminds me of a flower with the shapes that were cut out, however it could look nicer if you added more strips on the sides it would look more as a lamp and less as a sculpture, but other than that good job.

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  3. I like how you have used the colour side of the poster on the outside of you lamp, and the gaps have the perfect amount of light radiating out of it, the only part i think you could improve is the layout of your assembly poster because your current one has too much happening all over the place, making it difficult to read.

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  4. Amazing design love the star foldings and shape and great assembling system. Perhaps one improvement is to reduce the amount images and bold letters in your assemblage manual as it ruins the Zen effect.

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  5. i really like this design because of the interesting shape and how you used the colour of the poster to your advantage. The only suggestion i have is maybe you could of somehow try to make more light seep through? but overall it is a really interesting design.

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  6. i like the whole round and organic shape which emphasizes the easy and relaxing mood. if i say advice with that, you can get all pieces connected with one center part so that whole pieces look one. but overall well done!

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