TRI-CHROMA
A simple lighting fixture that emits complex and interactive lighting effects. One wall light to shine your walls, ceiling, and space.
PROJECT INTRO
OVERVIEW
Tri-chroma is a wall light designed through comparison between its simple fixture and complex lighting effects, and user interactivity to change lighting effects for enhanced retention. The changes of the lighting effects aims to create a sense of playfulness and surprise in terms of enriched experience by multi-sensory engagement.
MY ROLE: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Lighting exploration, design research, lighting design, CAD modeling, rendering, hands-on prototyping, 3D printing.
DESIGN TOOL
Solidworks, Keyshot, Photoshop.
TEAM
Individual project.
PROJECT DURATION
Jan 2019 - Mar 2019, 7 weeks
LOCATION
Brooklyn, NY, USA.
KEY TASK
To achieve modularity in lighting effects by wall light. Easy mass production. Low cost for factories and makers. Moderate marketing price.
DESIGN PRINCIPLE
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Wall light
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Modularity in lighting effects
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Low material cost
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Aims to mass produce
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Aesthetics
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User friendly
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Easy operability
PROJECT GOAL
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Achieve modularity in effects
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Multi-sensory engagement for enhanced retention
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Interactive lighting fixture to increase interest
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Contrast between simple fixture and complex effects to amplify the effects
GUIDING QUESTION
What is modularity and how to achieve it through an interactive and playful approach in a low cost and mass productive lighting fixture and its lighting effects?
KEY WORD
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Wall light
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Modularity
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Low material cost
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Mass production
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Aesthetics
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User friendly
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Easy operability
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Interactivity
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Science of light
SAMPLE STUDY & EXPLORATION
MOOD BOARD & SAMPLE STUDIES
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Wall light
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Aesthetics
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Modularity
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Simple fixture
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Interactivity
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Less is more
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Easy operability
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Low cost
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Mass production
EXPLORE & EXPERIMENT
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Lighting effects
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Reflection
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Refraction
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Colors
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Overlay
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Convex/concave lens
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Objects to re-shape
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Playful
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Surprise
A clear object does not only let a beam of light shine through or refract, but also shape the lighting projection on the "screen" based on the angle and distance between the object and light source, meaning to shape light is not hard at all, as long as the object to shine through is in the wanted shape.
RESEARCH
RESEARCH CONTENT
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Prism
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Light
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Convex lenses
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Concave lenses
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Focal length
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Calculating formula
INSIGHTS
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Light is wave
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Breaking down white light requires a prism
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Light in different colors speed differently
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Lenses proportionally enlarge or shrink projections as well as sharpen and blurs
A prism and lenses help elevate the lighting effect to be complex upon a clear object that can be used to shape the light on "screen". With lenses, more options as sharpening and blurring projections, enlarging or shrinking not only each pattern in projections but all the distance among them is now completely in hand of control.
IDEATION
After I got myself a prism and several convex lenses with different focal length, I moved onto ideating the lighting fixture that involves mechanism to trigger or activate the inside, including the prism, lenses, and light source. I consisted on contrast between the fixture and effects for emphasis and a sense of surprise for retention, so I chose a simple fixture, fully black to hide the inner secret, shaped in triangle, and with one tiny side bar for interaction to rotate the prism and change all lighting effects.
DESIGN
Since the prism shapes the light in triangle, I decided to make a triangular fixture to achieve unity in its shape and light effects.
PROTOTYPING (PART A)
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Structure
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Mechanism
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Easy operability
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Prism test
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Lenses test
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Projection test
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Other effects test
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Light source location
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Interactivity
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Contrast
A wall light will not be far from the ceiling, which decrease the value of adding convex lenses since the projections gets either small and too far away from each other or big but too blurry, losing its intensity on sharpness, a part of contrast between the sharp and the blurry.
PROTOTYPING (PART B)
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Remove lenses
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Re-build in Solidworks
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3D printing
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Assembling
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Whole product test
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Render a series
PLA for the black shield pieces and resin for the inner turnplate due to 3D printing accuracy. Easy shapes for mass production. Ideally the base material is to replace PLA when producing by factories. In order to avoid metal gets heated over time, the light source should remain as LED light. This way the cost of manufacturing will be low, and so the price for customers can be moderate.
FINAL OUTCOME
Warm light at days.
Surprises at nights.
NEXT STEP
WHAT COULD'VE BEEN DONE BETTER
WHAT'RE EXPECTED TO LEARN NEXT
Safety. Although the fixture shapes in triangle and achieves the purpose to unite with lighting effects, triangle itself is a dangerous shape by its sharp edge potential to hurt users. The edges should've been filleted more.
My work ended in making out the second round of prototype. Ideally TRI-CHROMA is wall light without cable and switch hanging below its fixture. To install a wall switch and wires hidden inside the wall is an unknown zone of knowledge to me. If I had such experience working with electricians and technicians, I'd gain more experience to work with other parties and collaborate to solve problems in complex conditions.