SARAH HASHIGUCHI
product designer
TURN
CONDUCTIVE THREAD MEETS LED LIGHTING
Design Brief: design a luminaire using LED light and innovative conductive technologies that is either a significant improvement to offerings on the current market or something completely new
Solution: a portable night-light that takes advantage of conductive thread and gravity, while blending the warmth of cherry with the ripples of steel chilled glass
HOW IT WORKS
When the wooden side it up, gravity allows the batteries to hang, which separates them from the conductive thread, allowing the lights to be off. When the wooden base faces down, the batteries will sit on the conductive thread thereby completing the circuit.
RESEARCH
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Understanding how users interact with lighting in various spaces
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Learning about light qualities and properties of LEDs
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Exploring new conductive materials on the market
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Finding interactive ways to turn on and off lights
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Examining precedent studies of lights using innovative conductive technology
IDEATION & EXPERIMENTATION
what if the on/off switch opened and closed like flower petals?
what if the lights were incorporated into something functional like a bag?
what if the lights were sewn into a soft textile?
what if there were many lights all controlled by different switches?
what if the on/off switch worked like a rainmaker?
what if the lights were housed in a glass prism with walls lined in conductive plastic?
EXPERIMENT #1: conductive thread + conductive paint
this light doubles as a decorative wall hanging
to turn on, the conductive paint must touch itself
this completes the circuit
turning on the light inside
in theory the light would shine through
EXPERIMENT #2: conductive thread + conductive paint + magnets
the lantern is off when the handle is disconnected
magnets bring conductive paint together
conductive thread runs through the handles to the light
the lantern can be hung or carried
it can also be collapsed to sit on a table
EXPERIMENT #3: conductive plastic + dimes
EXPERIMENT #4: conductive thread + magnets
there would be different numbers of lights on each wall
brightness could be controlled based on which side was down
the switch for the light is controlled by the magnet on top
when the conductive threads touch, the light turns on
EXPERIMENT #5: conductive thread + gravity
this experiment informed the design of the final product
PROCESS
FINAL PROTOTYPE
