My Design Work

 

 

This is a desk lamp I designed in Form-Z in 2007 as part of my assessment. The way it works is that the lamp head is tilted down when it is turned off, and the physical action of pressing the button raises the head and tilts a mercury switch at the same time, closing the circuit and lighting the bulb. 

To turn it off, the other side of the switch is pressed reversing the action. – see below.

 

These diagrams show how the downward pressure on either side of the button transfers to the tilting up or down of the head.

 

 

The idea behind the lamp is that each time you turn it on and off, there is a visibly physical response to the action instead of merely flicking a switch.  This is to promote a level of interaction with the lamp which works to keep it from becoming just another passive object in the corner, so to speak.

 

Combining the real world with the virtual

This is a lounge setting I created as to display a weaving sample created by my wife for an upholstery exhibition last year.

 

The textile sample was woven on a loom then scanned into the computer, I created a simple lounge chair and couch then rendered the objects with a repeating pattern to get an idea of what the final product would look like.

 

 

The pattern is actually larger than the sample in real life because when the sample was scaled down to the size of the couch it simply looked like a blur with no definition of the squares. 

 

 

Using FormZ as a tool to help the making process

 

 

 For this project for an exhibition of ‘vessels for water’ I needed to fit a metal door which I constructed from copper sheet to attach to the side of a drinking glass.  The way I used the modeling program to help was to measure the dimensions of the glass accurately with vernier calipers, then model the glass in FormZ to the actual dimensions.

Once I had this virtual glass all I neeeded to do was model up a door then using the flatten function on the program, disassemble the door and print it out on paper.

I then glued the paper to the copper sheet, cut it out and reassembled it as an actual object. Then all I had to do was a minimal amount of fitting and the door fit perfectly onto the glass.

If I had to fit It from scratch it would have taken much more time and effort.

 

Flip Lamp Design

 

Flip Lamp (desk version) open / on

 

This design was the beginning of my search into the movement mechanisms i’ve been working into my lamps. 

The head was supposed to flip over, turn itself on and uncover the bulb simultaneously with the pushing of a lever. Looking back on it I still like the idea, but the execution of mechanism needs a lot of work, even though I havent constructed it yet it’s design has informed some of my latest designs.

 

 

Flip Lamp (desk version) closed / off