Paper Lighting

Product design

Spring 2022

During my undergrad at Northwestern, I was assigned to design and prototype a lamp made completely out of printer paper.

Role: lead product designer

  • Use paper in a novel way to create a lamp.

  • Make an easily manufacturable lamp.

Research

I collected images of various and unique treatments of paper that I liked.

Layering of paper to vary how light shines through

Repeating patterns / applications 

Contrast of organic vs geometric shapes

Material exploration

Main Concept: make the whole lamp with a repeating pattern of folded paper squares.

  • Tested if drawing in sharpie would change the light. It did not.

  • Liked how the light changed at the layered folds.

  • Decided to iterate on the layering technique.

  • Began layering smaller squares to create depth.

Final prototype

Reflection

For this project, I loved working hands-on with a simple material and finding creative ways to make it novel and interesting. The focus was more on aesthetics and prototyping, so in the future, I'd like to incorporate more functional testing to ensure the designs are not only visually appealing but also practical and user-friendly.

More product design projects

Eames Toy

Spring 2022

Subaru Bottle

Winter 2022

Bauhaus Handle

Fall 2021

Design sketching

2020 - present