Lamp Design

This year my senior Product Designers undertook the ambitious task of designing a commercial prototype for a lamp. This would take them through the full design process and would enable them to learn much about design by simply doing it!

We began initially discussing and investigating various forms of lamp designs on the market, but we were particularly keen to investigate designs that went beyond pure functionality and incorporated creative qualities that also made them aesthetically pleasing. For their particular lamp concept, I provided them with one significant guideline and that was their final design should be inspired in some way by their home country of Japan.

They began by researching appropriate images and developing a concept. This was converted into a small prototype model from which final refinements were made. A plug and globe socket was purchased from the hardware store from which measurements could be taken. Once the design was finalised, construction began using readily available materials (ie wire, wood, plastic forms) that were carefully crafted to form the proposed concept. To finalise the piece, spray packs were used to achieve the desired colour scheme. It all sounds very simple and straight forward, I can assure you that many hours were spent developing the design from idea to the final switching on of the lamp itself.