problem and initial ideas

I was given the assignment to design a desk lamp, just for me. A couple of years ago, I had seen a lighting effect where there was masking behind a piece of white acrylic so when the light was turned on, only circles of light appeared through the acrylic. So I started to explore ways to use this effect.

refinement

I settled on a segmented design which became more and more aggresive as I got into it. From being segments, it began to include overlapping materials and gaps in addition to having the shaped light come through the front of the segments.

fabrication and final product

The next task was to settle on dimensions and figure out how to make it.

I decided to make it out of cold rolled steel and then spent a night in the foundry bending and punching all the pieces. I also used the lasercamm to cut out the acylic in the front panel and the black acrylic mask behind which shaped the cool flourescent light I had put inside.

The lamp also began to rust which I liked even more since it then ended up with a post-World War 3 sort of feel to it.