Group Project

Design Brief

In teams, we had to de-construct the shape and form of the supplied lamp and create a 1:1 scale replica model out of the modelling materials available:

• Cardboard & Foam Board
• Wooden Dowels
• Tape

Our team had to successfully construct the components and assemble it into a recognisable model which stands, doesn’t break and may balance with the use of tape and an excess weight found anywhere in the workshop.

How it went…

Our group decided to plan out how we would tackle the task and started by gathering the additional measurements that were not provided on the sheet to ensure our model was as accurate as possible. We did this by using a metre of cut card to mark out distances, then use a ruler to measure the dimensions. After we developed a plan for the group and organised the measurements, we split the model making into different tasks such as the base, beams, weights and lamp head which was beneficial for saving time.

I was in charge of the lamp base and used the rough measurements to get started and improvise from there on. The diameter was 110mm and after the two cardboard pieces were cut, i used the foam board as the material to wrap around after i had put small 10mm gap cuts to make it curve easier. The circumference was calculated using pie (3.14) multiplied by the diameter (110mm) and then cropped so that it would fit tightly around the cardboard pieces.

The foam board piece was tight enough after connected by masking tape to an extent that no glue was required to hold the top and bottom pieces in place. The top piece then had indents cut in to make the two base beams sit comfortable and flush with the rest of the base.

For my base and individual work within the group project, everything went as planned because of the advice and suggestions from my teammates, which helped me greatly. Later on in the project when the individual pieces came together, we were faced by challenges such as the creating the counter balance. This appeared when we attached the head to the rest of the lamp and this could have been avoided if we made a small prototype and discovered the problem earlier.

Our first approach was to add to the current cardboard weights, Many of the materials were not heavy enough and we had to resolve the issue using rolls of tape. Thankfully after trial and error, we had a large and small roll of tape which balanced the whole lamp perfectly. Although it may have been classed as cheating, the lamp still worked…

Concluding we were finished and didn’t want to tamper with it too much, we looked at other groups for ‘inspiration’. We tried adding tape around the joints but it didn’t make too much of a difference.

Individual Project

First Design

For my individual project, i wanted to stick to creating a lamp which was able to project a light from multiple angles like the Tizio lamp while still using weight to keep it balanced.

For my first idea, i was taking inspiration from a previous light i had seen which portrayed a normal lamp

but was 2D and sat against the wall as if it was a drawing. The lamp would still have the look of the normal Tizio lamp but would be only two layers thick with a thin strip of LED’s that would illuminate the wall.

I made a prototype model to get a stronger visualisation of how it would sit up and how thin it would be. However, after making the prototype, i felt the design didn’t vary enough from the original design so i moved onto something that would be more challenging.

Second Design

I was interested in how the counter-balancing would work if the shape of the lamps beams were changed. To vary from the original design i started off by adding curves instead of the straight lines in the original design and went straight into developing the model to see if the idea was possible and how i could visualise it further.

I constructed the base in the same form as our group project as that was sturdy and held together very well so i’d take the strengths from that design and transfer them into my new version.

The beams were then added and firstly joint together by a straightened paperclip which was discovered to be a poor choice of material as it offered no friction (which was essential) and was not entirely able to be perfectly straight (plus they were cheap and flimsy).

I was able to get hold of a few cocktail sticks which were a lot more suitable and a perfect size for the model i was making. The scale of the model was 2:1 which helped the measurements which i took from the cardboard lamp in the group project. The measurements were used to calculate the straight size, then the curve would be added then cut out.

When creating the rest of the lamp, i started with the head first after learning from last time. The head would look like the weights but could either have a strip of light around the middle or possibly project a beam through one panel.Doing the head first was helpful as i realised that it was too big and created too much weight at the end, so a massive weight would’ve been required. I altered my design so that the three circles would then be in correlating size and also weight.

I had also planned ahead how i would alter the weights at the end as the circles would be opened and weights could be added internally. However, i didn’t see that the weights would act weirdly since they would be able to move around within the circle so i resolved to superglue and stuck all the paperclips in place.

This worked out and i was able to get the lamp to operate as a counterbalance and the lamp functioned to how i wanted. The only interesting problem being that the curves in the design meant it could only counterbalance in certain positions.

To conclude, i learnt a multitude of things. I would say pre planning was more essential than i thought as prototypes and starting with a fairly detailed plan of measurements would help the process run more smoothly with less problems appearing later on in the process.