Concept and working prototype · Industrial design
ION: a desk lamp with few parts, that moves every way you need
ION is a desk lamp for people who work with their eyes: designers, architects, anyone at a desk all day.
Few components, good materials, and two joints that let you put the light exactly where you need it. I built it as a working prototype, and it still works.
- Role
- Design and prototype
- For
- Designers and architects
- Prototype
- Full size, 3D printed, working light
Brief
Fewer parts, better ones
A regular-size desk lamp, built from as few components as possible, in high-quality materials. Designed in aluminium, it sits naturally next to the aluminium laptops and tools on a designer’s desk.
Sketches and models
Two joints, every direction
I went through a lot of drawings and revisions. This version stuck because of how it moves: up and down, side to side, and round, all from two joints.
Few parts doing a lot of work is the whole idea of the lamp, and the joints are where it shows.
Up and down
Side to side
Round
Engineering and materials
Light for work, warm or cool
It’s a lamp for working, so it’s bright, and you can dim it and move it from warm, yellowish light to cool, white light.
Warm for late nights, cool when colours need to be accurate.
Warm
Late nights
Cool
When colours need to be right
A blue cable, for personality
Everything else is quiet and neutral, so the cable gets the one colour. It’s a pure design decision: a bit of personality on an otherwise calm object.
Prototype and testing
Real cables, real light
I built it at full size with 3D-printed parts and real electronics. In CAD everything fits. In real life you route real cables through real joints, and it has to actually turn on.
It works: it lights, it moves every way it was designed to, and it still works today.
