#brief04

the final result!

because this light-chain was wired in a way that the positive and negative wires mattered - which was unlike the previous led-diode i used - i had to mark them so that the wiring would be correct, which resulted in a lot of back and forth between the power connection and the light-chain.

testing the two different wires of the light-chain. it is obvious that one of the wires lights the chain up, however i’m not quite sure what the other wire does.

because i mainly used two different existing products - a light-chain (fairy lights) and an umbrella - my focus was how it would light up. after going through the functions of an umbrella, it was obvious that if it was going to be a surprise (for the first-time users) it would have to be the part where the  runner hits the top notch, and the lights following the rib to the stretcher.

after the testing i went back to the drawing-board to figure out what kind of interaction i wanted to create. what i knew was that i wanted to somehow work with fabrics, and perhaps the element of surprise.

then i had a talk with a t.a. about the lamps. i considered a mini trampoline that when you jump on it the light turns on, as well as a baskeball basket so that when you hit the inner square the basket lights up.

however as i was having lunch and talking with people about something completely different we started discussing autumn. a lot of the people i was talking with said that their only association to autumn was that winter was arriving, or that it was getting dark and depressing. so i thought about making a lamp regarding bringing light to the increasing darkness that autumn brings. the idea of an umbrella lighting up as it opened was a perfect fit for what i wanted to create during this assignment.

these are some of the mockups/sketches i’ve finished thus far for the fourth brief. 

we are going to be making lamps. but the design is not the main aspect - although as with everything in design it is quite important.

for this project we first went through how to wire a led diode to a power source - batteries or electrical plug.