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.
