Colorful or Creepy? Floating Lamp Design
Like a jellyfish lit up and floating in space, this hanging lamp design by Kristin Birna Bjarnadottir combines elegance with a colorful mystery about how it is suspended. The designer intended to make something that was a blend of magical, surreal, reflective and romantic – all rolled into a single hanging light design.
The lamp itself is made from the kind of highly reflective safety cloth normally seen in safety apparel. This material, used on the lamp shade and decorative dangling strings below, draws attention to itself and away from the ultra-thin fishing line from which the light fixture is suspended.
An LED light unit illuminates the entire light from below. Colored red, violet, blue and/or brown disks are set on the light to change its color and the shade above spreads the light according to various pattern options.
Despite the relative simplicity of its execution this design is, in fact, quite complex – involving alternative light sources, variable colors and patterns and a series of special effects that set it apart from a standard store-bought lamp or light fixture.
“The lamp ILLUMINANT is based on the idea that ‘what goes around comes around.'”
“Illuminant is my final assignment as a Product Designer from Iceland Academy of the Arts, spring 2008. The idea of te lamp came to me in a course where we were supposed to make romantic lights. When making experiments with the reflective material I thought a lot of the existence of people getting reflection of their own behavior. I believe that it’s true: you reap as you sow.”
“The lampshade is made of reflective material and hangs from the ceiling on a fishline. The threads hanging from the shade are made from the same reflective material by cutting them into 2mm thick strips. A led bulb is placed in a cylinder on the floor, and 4 colored glass plated are included (red, violet, blue, and brown).”
“You choose the coloured glass you prefer and place it on top of the cylindar and the lampshade reflects your choice. Illuminant makes a magical atmosphere when turned on. like in a fairy tale. The ceiling is decorated by the lamp with great refraction.”
