The goal of this project was to take a lamp design from a concept on a page to a full product, ready to be sold. I worked on every portion of the project myself, from concept development and refinement, to form studies and material choices, all the way to final building and details.
At the end of the semester, all of the students from the class would take their lamps and attempt to sell them to other students and faculty in the Student Union.
Preliminary Research
After learning about the prompt for this project, I started off my process with a mind map, and exploring current market products that I enjoyed.
Because our lamp had to have a secondary function that wasn't the light, there were many directions I was able to go with the lamp concept.
Concept Development
Early concept development took me through a wide range of lamp types and styles. The goal was to have a lamp that not only worked, but provided a secondary function besides just being a light source. A large focus for this part of development was thinking about the bulb, and what type to use.
I thought about ideas for a planter lamp, a portable lamp, an adjustable lamp, a lamp for seasonal depression disorder, a wireless charger lamp, all kinds of lamps with different functions.
Concept Refinement
After brainstorming and coming up with a wide variety of different styles of lamps, I eventually settled on the idea of using a Filament bulb, and making a lamp that celebrated the bulb.
I think the more industrial, almost steampunk-era aesthetic works well for a bulb like this. I wanted a design that looked a bit rugged, as well as elegant.
This led the overall style of the lamp, as well as the material choices.
Filament bulbs are purchased with the intent to show off as much of the bulb as possible. They are very elegant and wondrous bulbs to look at, putting off a very pleasant soft light. The goal of my lamp would be to celebrate the bulb as much as possible, while also having a housing that accented the bulb nicely, and protected it as much as possible.
Form Studies
I decided on the bulb I was going to use first. Being that the lamp should fully show off the bulb, I decided to start with that, and essentially build around it.
The lamp overall has a very tall and slender look because of the bulb. The materials I wanted to use was wood that I could laser cut and easily stack, and metal rods and nuts to support the structure. The construction was simple, but effective.
The electrical components of this lamp involved the bulb, the socket, a dimmer and the cable to plug it in. All of these parts (besides the dimmer) would be housed in the lower portion of the lamp in the stacks of wood. I wanted as little of these parts to be visible as possible.
Final Prototypes
These are the final prototypes I made before moving onto the main production of the final design. Some questions that had to be answered at this stage of the design was whether or not to stain the wood, how big to make the top stack of wood, and what color to make the supporting rods.
I eventually decided to combine aspects of either lamp into 1. I would make the supporting rods black instead of silver, and I would stain the wood. Both of these processes lended to a design that felt more complete and overall more elegant.
Construction
Once the final design had been figured out, it was time to start producing the pieces. A majority of the process was done on a laser cutter since the form was made from stacking different sized rings together.
Below is the final illustrator files that were used for the laser cutter. Each board I cut pieces out of, I attempted to use as much of the material as possible.
Lots of circles were cut out in the making of this lamp. Any pieces that were not used directly on the lamps created will eventually be used to make another design idea of mine.
Logo and Packaging
For this project I wanted to come up with a logo and some form of packaging to go along with the lamp. I created the name "Emanate", which I think nicely captures the essence of this lamp, as well as a hang tag and takeaway for the lamp in the event that I sold some.
My chosen logo concept and its many possible variations are shown on the left. On the right is the logo I eventually ended up choosing to go along with my lamp.
The Final Product
At the end of the semester, I had created something I really loved. I believed that I designed something that looked good and accomplished all the goals of the project. The lamp put the bulb center stage to be admired by people that looked at it, but still had a very elegant and industrial feel itself. The top part of the lamp could be flipped around and moved to wherever the consumer desired, and the dimmer gave another layer of customizability.
I ended up selling out of the lamps during the times we showed them off to fellow students and faculty, and that was a huge accomplishment for me. To be able to make a product that not only I loved, but other people did as well was a very rewarding experience.
Thank you for checking out my Lamp project!