*mobile devices click the + icon for a dropdown menu of finalists.

Emerging Criteria:

• Designers and design firms from all disciplines including but not limited to Artists, Industrial Designers, Architects and architectural firms are eligible to enter so long as:
• Submissions must have been developed and submitted by the eligible artist, architect or industrial designer whose business or professional career launched within the last 3 years and within 3 years of a graduate program, or, NO EARLIER than November 1st 2012.
• Entry must be a working PROTOTYPE by OCTOBER 26th 2015.
• Eligible prototypes must have been completed no earlier than December 31, 2012 but must not have gone into any wide-scale production anywhere nor have any contract to do so.
• Work must be of original creation, not infringing on any creative copyright anywhere. 
• 2-5 photographs of the actual prototype + 1-3 sketches and/or renderings totalling no more than 6 images.
• Prototype MUST NOT exceed 4' x 4' x 4' & final design must be intended for 1:1 scale. 
• Eligible prototype must be a working indoor PENDANT, WALL, TABLE or FLOOR light. 
• If the design is intended to be hard-wired, for exhibition purposes they must be able to be plugged in. 
• All lights adaptable to 120v, North American Standard.

Click here to view all 90 submissions!

Randall Zieber

Title:
Alabaster

Concept Statement:
Alabaster is the name used to denote gypsum stone in its’ harder and higher quality form that can be worked or sculpted into decorative and functional objects. Because of its natural beauty and translucence, alabaster has been used in such applications as windows in ancient times, to some of the lighting we see today.

The alabaster that is used for this project comes from alabaster nodules, which are large crystals in the form of very round boulders dug up from the earth. I wanted to take these big round crystals that look just like regular boulders and transform them into smaller angular and faceted forms which would be more recognizable as what we would consider a crystal-like form. Then I put LED lights inside to show off the translucency of the stone.

Project Specs:
Each of these “crystals” was carved and polished from a small piece of Italian alabaster using hand held tools, and copper was added as a decorative element. The shape of each object is not preplanned, but the angles and facets are created during the carving process, allowing for spontaneity and randomness.  A complete light can consist of one individual pendant, or a larger configuration of many pendants.

Bio:
Randy Zieber first studied electronics, and after working in that field for a few years went back to university to study business. While still in school he started his own business supplying materials to sculptors. In his free time he enjoys making art in a range of materials, however he especially loves to carve stone, and recently to try his hand at designing lighting and other products.

Country of Origin:
Vancouver, Canada

Renee Struthers

Title:
Ang[u]ere

Concept Statement:
“to compress in a bend, fold”
 

Tyndall stone is a ubiquitous prairie material featured in both its rural and urban landscapes. The unique appearance of this dolomitic limestone is due to a crystallization process that physically exposes itself as a subtle sawn colored mottling. The organic simplicity of the stone is further complimented in its revelation of ancient marine life captured, compressed and folded within the crystalized pattern.

The ang[u]ere pendant light is designed to emphasize the distinctive crystallization which defines tyndall stone. The light is angled in order to expose the tyndall stone to the viewer, as the light source gently illuminates the beautiful patterning. Using digital processes, the stone is cut in a circular form and fit onto the luminaire’s copper plated housing, the warm metal complimenting the softness of the stone. The piece is fit with a simple LED vanity bulb.

In an intent to increase the user’s appreciation of natural processes, the ang[u]ere light creates a discussion around purity of form, color and material.

Project Specs:
The ang[u]ere light has a customizable length depending on its application (anywhere from 18”-48”). The ang[u]ere light has a 12” diameter (with 4.25” steel light housing). A CNC water jet is used to cut the Tyndall stone which forms the light’s circular shade. The light housing and fittings are custom machined and copper plated steel. Thesuspension pipe is ¾” solid copper fit into a white painted steel canopy.

Bio:
Renee Struthers is a designer/maker currently based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. An intimate connection to her surrounding landscape and culture, both rural and urban is one of the main impetuses for her subtle, minimalist yet intricate design language. Her personal discipline focuses heavily on the phenomenological aspects of design from commercial and residential interior design and space planning, to intimately scaled furniture, lighting and objects. She is currently completing her Masters Degree in the Department of Interior Design, Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba. Her work has been featured in multiple gallery exhibits, publications and print including the Globe and Mail Style advisor (Spring 2015), at the IDS Toronto in 2015 and now occupies the Kit & Ace store in Winnipeg's Exchange district.

URL:
www.reneestruthers.com

Country of Origin:
Winnipeg, Canada

Kris Jensen

Title:
August Pendant

Concept Statement:
The August Pendant is inspired by the natural formation of round terraced pools found near hot springs. These terraces are formed by the crystallization of calcium as the superheated geothermal water cools once it reaches the earth’s surface. The symmetry of these otherworldly pools create a beautiful refraction of light as the sun bounces off of a stepped series of reflective surfaces. It is this duplication of light that has most greatly influenced the pendant’s design as refraction acts like an echo resulting in a perception of something much greater than the sum of its parts.

In order to give the pendant a symmetrical property associated with crystals, a machined stainless steal mold was used to press the glass discs. LEDs were an obvious choice and were selected to compliment the dynamic nature of the light as well as match the environmental and social intent regarding the design. The result is a precise and geometric pendant that pays homage to its inspiration.

Project Specs:
It took a number of experienced glass workers numerous trials in order to master the casting of the round discs that house the LEDs. Once poured and annealed, the glass was then sandblasted in order to give it a matte opaque quality. The next task was sourcing an LED driver that was small enough to fit within the housing of the pendant. Powder coated brass and steel make up the structure of the light and laser cut acrylic was used as a reflective mirrored surface as well as a diffuser to protect the LEDs.

Bio:
Kris Jensen was born and raised in Vancouver where he continues to reside. He began his career in residential and restaurant design, constructing bespoke pieces of furniture and lighting tailored to their environment. These experiences working with acclaimed restaurants and distinguished clientele lent him the ability to self teach a number of capabilities including welding, woodwork, and an understanding of industry leading techniques for product manufacturing. Now solely focused on lighting design, Kris creates balanced, thoughtful and timeless pieces that seamlessly work their way into the realm of the classic.

URL:
n/a

Country of Origin:
Vancouver, Canada

Matthew McCormick

Title:
Dodeca

Concept Statement:
The theme of crystallize concurs images of geometry and articulating surfaces. Inspired by raw precious materials, this multifaceted sculptural piece derives its namesake for the ancient Greek term for 12; and subtle nod to the number of its facetted sides.

Project Specs:
At 36" in diameter, this piece is handmade out of mild steel before it is plated with the desired finish. Energy efficient LEDs are its primary light source.

Bio:
Matthew's mind sees the potential in everything around him. Inspired by shape and form, intrigued about composition and considerate of the impact of design, each of his creations is an expression of well informed vision and a finely tuned technical understanding of engineering and manufacturing. By working collaboratively with designers and architects, he creates lighting as unique a space itself. From a simple, stand-alone fixture to large-scale illuminated art installations, each piece and project is well considered and consciously created. With the ability to take a simple idea and shape it into a compelling installation, his dedication to curiosity forms his process, material manipulation and conceptualization.

As a philosophy, he believes that it’s not the sum of the parts – it’s the intrinsic value of how they’re put together.

URL:
www.matthewmccormick.ca

Country of Origin:
Vancouver, Canada

Annie Tung

Title:
Eclipse

Concept Statement:
Eclipse is a collaboration between ECAL and Vacheron Constantin. As an ECAL student, I worked with Swiss craftsmen Vincent Du Bois to give a traditional practice a contemporary perspective.

I was interested in finding the balance and/or limits between traditional marble sculpting techniques and technology. At the same time, my aim was to apply my background in metal-smithing to lighting design. Recent technological innovations have made the process of working with marble easier and more accessible to artists and designers, resulting in a marble renaissance.

Inspired by the world of textiles and traditional ‘transparent’ veil sculptures carved in Carrara marble, the “Eclipse” table lamp explores the boundaries of marble properties in a contemporary context and aesthetic. The marble graduates from a thick base to an extremely thin edge that folds like a flexible material. The form appears to be under tension by the metal rod that houses the LED light source, giving the illusion that it is literally bending the marble.

The crystalline marble is from Ticino, Switzerland and was chosen for its lunar-like lustre and infrequent use.

Project Specs:
Approximately ø 300mm, 150mm deep. Hand-carved crystalline marble, copper and brass is shaped, soldered and chrome plated. One part of the electrical is soldered to the copper 'cup' with one wire cable running down the brass tube. 3W LED light.

Bio:
Native to Toronto, Annie Tung graduated from Ontario College of Art & Design University. Upon graduation, she participated in a three-year artist-residency program at Harbourfront Centre’s Craft Studio, one of Canada’s leading cultural institutions in the heart of Toronto. Following her passion for fine, detailed objects with a poetic perspective, Tung pursued a Master in Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship at École Cantonale d’arts de Lausanne (ÉCAL).
    
Annie’s practice is process and research based coupled with a sensitivity for materials. Through design-craft objects and drawings, she makes work that straddles the line between design/art, functional/decorative; contemporary designs that combine delicacy and strength.
Annie has been the recipient of 15 industry awards and grants for her work. She has exhibited in Canada, USA, South Korea, Germany, UK and Italy; her work will be part of London Design Festival at the Victoria & Albert Musuem 2015 and Maison et Objet Paris 2016.

URL:
www.shesmiledandran.com

Country of Origin:
Toronto, Canada/Lausanne, Switzerland

Jiangmei Wu

Title:
Eurus

Concept Statement:
Crystallization produces symmetrical faceted geometry showing the growth of an internal pattern repeated indefinitely. While the study of crystal growth is an important subject in science, it also provides inspirations in art and design. How can we understand form generation as the notion of an ordered complexity, a multiplicity which is governed by some unifying principles? Eurus is designed to challenge this notion of form finding by combining mathematical origami and algorithm based design. When suspended and illuminated, Eurus, named after Greek God of the East Wind, sways into ephemeral patterns of light and shadow, softening their surroundings with crystal-like geometry and natural textures.

Eurus, is made of lightweight, non-rigid material, and folded and assembled to create a semi-rigid structure. The assembling technique allows the light to be flat packaged for shipping. The main material is tear-free Washi paper, which has a three-layer structure, with eco-friendly polyester film as core and Kozo Washi on both sides. Kozo Washi is a type of renewable material that is made from the inner bark of Kozo, a type of mulberry tree. The use of renewable material, coupled with simple fabrication and assembly techniques, Eurus presents a minimal carbon footprint.

Project Specs:
Width: 31", Height:16"
High-tec Kozo, plastic, stainless steel, LED
A truncated origami pinwheel pattern is morphed between two three-dimensional surfaces paneled in an 8 by 16 grid. The symmetrical design results in a more simplified fabrication process and an overall reduction of material consumption. Instead of working with 144 unique modules, Eurus only requires eight unique modules. These eight three-dimensional modules are unrolled into two dimensional shapes and nested onto eight large sheets of High-Tec Kozo for digital cutting. A 180 degree viewing angle LED light evenly illuminates each of origami pinwheel module into subtle patterns of light and shadow.

Bio:
Jiangmei Wu is an award-winning designer and a tenure-track assistant professor at Indiana University in the United States. Wu has over 10 years of professional and 7 years of teaching experience in art and design. She does interdisciplinary work in art, design, mathematics, science and engineering. Recently, she has been investigating the relationship between geometry, surface texture, computational algorithms, and making techniques in the art and science of paper folding. Her latest collection of Folded Light Art, using eco-friendly materials and manufacturing techniques, has gained world-wide attention and has been published in many design magazines internationally, including Elle Decoration, DesignBoom, MocoLoco, Inhabitat, Gizmodo, Espaces Contemporains, and many more. Her creative works have been juried and exhibited in big cities in the United States such as New York, Chicago, as well as in Italy, Japan, and Bangkok.

URL:
http://www.foldedlightart.com, http://www.jiangmeiwu.com

Country of Origin:
United States

SivisokoAnamarija Korolj & Leon Lai - Sivisoko

Title:
Okenite Lantern

Concept Statement:
The Okenite Lantern is made of iridescent material: it transforms light into a myriad of colours when viewed from various angles. The lantern does not passively dampen light like a traditional shade; instead, it actively converts light into diverse hues and geometric shapes. During the day, Okenite responds to the colours of its surroundings. When illuminated, Okenite fills a space with such colour and intensity that the rays seem nearly tangible.

Through careful design iterations, Okenite embeds both structure and immersive effects into one single layer of material. The amorphous form is designed and calibrated using parametric software, and manufactured using digital fabrication with manual assembly. Sheets of acrylic laminated with a highly reflective, color-bending film are laser cut into individually unique strips with tabs and slots. Each ring is folded and friction fit together to create the self-supporting shell. The sheets are flat-packed, saving shipping costs and lessening environmental impacts.

Like a split geode, the inside of the lantern is as spectacular as its exterior effects. Gleams and sparkles bounce from the inner structure and transmit through to the outside. The Okenite lantern is both a fascinating art object, as well as an apparatus for utterly enlivening a space.

Project Specs:
The Okenite lantern’s nebulous shape measures approximately 10” x 10” x 10” (L x W x H). The shell is made of laser-cut 1/16” clear acrylic laminated with Dichroic Film. The laser-cut strips are assembled using a system of friction fitted slots and acrylic keys to produce the overall form. Okenite uses a 110 V Halogen Capsule that produces a crisp white, bright light.

Bio:
Sivisoko is a design and architectural collective based in Toronto. With a history of designing for various communities around the world, Sivisoko is deeply concerned with material innovation and design as catalysts for social development. Inspired by their traveled and lived experiences from different countries, Sivisoko brings an exceptional lens to design challenges and aims to produce contextual and refined solutions.

Anamarija Korolj participated in the Canadian Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architectural Biennale with her winning housing project design; she earned her Master of Architecture at the University of Toronto. Leon Lai is a Royal Architectural Institute of Canada medal winning designer who also received his Master of Architecture from the University of Toronto.

Country of Origin:
Toronto, Canada

Daniel Treacy

Title:
Pylite

Concept Statement:
One of the most intriguing of all crystalline structures is the humble Pyrite. It seems to defy conventional expectations of a crystal – completely opaque, with a brassy metallic lustre, it was harshly nicknamed ‘fool’s gold’. It’s a slight indictment of human esteem that we machine rarer stones to force beauty out of them - while the spurned, commonplace Pyrite naturally forms interlocking cubic crystals of astonishing complexity. This sense of free-form geometric intrigue has provoked the proposed piece.
Indulging the designer’s love of a bad pun, ‘PYLITE (2015)’ is a modular luminaire element that behaves as an individual crystal prism, combining in cuboid or planar arrays that can become table, pendant, wall lights, or even walls ‘of’ light. Meeting at either 45 or 180 degrees, and featuring cunningly hidden cable routing, ‘Pylite’ can scale dramatically to become far greater than its discrete elements. Each carefully crafted conical shape is self-nestable for ultra compact shipping and uses triangulation to gain maximum strength from thin and light brass sheet. Meanwhile, it obscures the connectors and ultra-efficient LED lightsource from direct view. The result is a soft indirect halo of light that turns the surface a brilliant gold… foolish or not.

Project Specs:
Single Unit: 400x400x120mm
Cubeform (Table/Pendant): 400x400x400mm
 Planar (Wall/Pendant) - Variable e.g. 1250x960x120mm for 3x4 array
Lightsource (each): Tridonic Stark LED strip ring (⌀200mm) // 8.3W // 1080lm // 3000K (Warm White) // 240+120V Converter can be integrated per unit or remote for whole array depending on application
Material: Stamped 1mm Brass Sheet (shape enables initial small runs to be produced by brake press folding and seam welding until sales justify stamp tooling)
Finish: Polished with Satin Clear Coat or optional pre-applied Dark Patina

Bio:
Dan Treacy is an industrial designer based in Melbourne, Australia. Fuelled by a healthy dose of curiosity and appetite for the peculiar, Dan has tackled designs for wristwatches, helical escalators, hybrid environmental toilets, autonomous cars, and even crocodile breeding tanks (don’t worry - he’s pretty sure he got the lid right).
These eclectic examples demonstrate a universal application of the design process, backed by Dan’s key philosophy – empathy. By understanding the personal interactive experience at every stage of a product’s life, he gets to optimise and share the joy of a product that exceeds expectations.
While studying at Monash university, Dan worked assembling custom luminaires for Australia’s Rakumba Lighting, leading to a passion for this complex and artistic field. Having displayed a committed attention to detail, he recently became senior industrial designer to the brand, developing its first family of stock products and rapidly gaining industry acclaim.

URL:
www.rakumba.com.au

Country of Origin:
Melbourne, Australia

Lauren Skinner & Déja Friesen

Title:
reflektere

Concept Statement:
Inspired by the physical beginnings of crystals, we sought to break the specimen down to its multifaceted structure and unique ability to manipulate and reflect light in a playful way, while remaining a solid form. The materials that we selected imitate these same properties.

Constructed from solid maple hardwood, the base allowed for a multifaceted shape of transparent plexiglass and mirrored acrylic to be built upwards — mimicking the formation of crystals and their protrusion into one another. LED lights illuminate the plexiglass and are reflected by the mirrored acrylic, creating countless visual illusions and beautiful shifts from light to shadow.

reflektere is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. It is a table lamp with subtle accent lighting, a mirror, and a sculptural object.

Project Specs:
3/8” X 8 1/2"  flexible led strip with AC/DC adapter 12V

3/4” maple hardwood: 
12” x 5 1/2” R
3 3/4”D x 12” W
3/8” slot

3/8" plexiglass:
3” - 8 1/2” D x 23 1/2” H
1/4"x 12” slot

2 pieces 1/8” mirrored acrylic:
11” w x 24” h with1/4” x 12”  slot

plexiglass & mirrored acrylic to be cut with laser cutter
solid maple to be cut with cnc
4-  3/8” dowels
flat pack shipping
consumer assembled

Bio:
GOLDEN COLLABORATIVE is a multidisciplinary creative studio that aims to create and help facilitate a cohesive visual environment with a playful minimalist aesthetic.

URL:
www.goldencollaborative.com

Country of Origin:
Vancouver, Canada

Brendan Keim

Title:
TRIM Floor Light

Concept Statement:
The TRIM floor light is part of a series of light fixtures which explores the volumes created when slicing away sections of a geometric body. The planes created from single points are the source for illumination. The sum of the points, lines, and planes create a solid form, as in to crystallize.

TRIM refers not only to the process to create the form, but also to the lamp's dimming function, carried out by a simple "trimpot", or potentiometer; to trim both form and light.

Project Specs:
Proposed dimensions: 19"w x 11"d x 36"h.

Materials: brass tube, LED, solid-surface / stone base.

Custom-machined brass tubes, CNC-cut base.

Hand-assembled in Brooklyn, NY.

Bio:
Brendan Keim is a furniture and product designer based in Brooklyn, NY. His work explores how high-end craft of the analog world can blend with and control the digital, as well as the balance between the electrical and the electronic.

Born and raised on the shoreline of Connecticut, Brendan spent his youth wandering beaches and forests, consuming science fiction, and taking things apart. He attended Pratt Institute to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Design. After graduating in 2005, Brendan spent the next five years working with various designers and firms throughout the five boroughs. In 2012, Brendan received his Master's of Fine Arts in Furniture Design at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI.

Brendan's work has been featured in Wallpaper, Surface Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, & DIY Furniture 2.

URL:
www.brendankeim.com

Country of Origin:
USA