New Zealand Student Craft Design Awards
Recognising and rewarding student artists and designers
Dark Lamp by Hayden Maunsell
Eastern Institute of Technology
To fulfill the brief I decided to design a table lamp. I wanted to focus on Dieter Rams approach to simplicity in his designs and also to connect to the analogue nostalgia of mid century design.
To do this I found a carbon filament bulb that reminded me of the vacuum tubes used in old mid-century audio amplifiers. I coupled this with a wooden frame and large dial for the dimmer which reflects an analogue volume control.
The table lamp DARK is actually the third lamp I created for this brief with the first two lamps titled DUSK and DAWN. These first two lamps were created to fulfill the brief while DARK was an extra lamp that combined the strongest details of the previous two. DUSK and DAWN were both accepted into and exhibited in the 'Talente' exhibition in Munich earlier this year, however DARK wasn't finished in time to submit/enter, so although I feel it is the strongest piece of the three it was never seen or exhibited.
The story told by my lamp DARK is more clearly seen when all three lamps are together but the same story apples to each lamp. It is a story of where I live and the geography surrounding my city. The amber glow of the bulb represents the sun rise/set over the dark Napier sea (black reflective top). The hard edges, corners, and angles symbolise the landscape and cliffs around my region in Hawkes Bay, and the rotation of the dimmer knob represents the movement of the sun across the sky.