In 2012 after I graduated from the Product Design department of LHÍ I had a studio in downtown Reykjavík at Ingólfstorg, dividing my time between being a “serious” product designer and working part time as an assistant to physiotherapists at Landakot.
During this time I was fascinated with flat-pack products (still am) and I was doing a lot of experiments with laser cutting 2D sheets of materials that could then be assembled into three dimensional products (at this time laser cutters were not nearly as common as they soon grew to be). This light series was born from that. Using laser cut wood, a tin can, a rubber band and a light fixture.
This was just a hobby idea, to design flat-pack lights where a tin can would play the role of the light shade. I even tried contacting ORA to get them involved - to get non-branded cans, but I never got a reply. The idea was to make a series of lights = a table lamp, a wall lamp, a floor lamp and a hanging light.
Interestingly enough, the heat from the lightbulb dried out the rubber bands that held the cans in place, resulting in them braking off after a few weeks.
I only ever made this one prototype seen in pics 1-3, which I gave to my friend Hlynur for his birthday, as I realised on my way to his birthday party that I had forgotten to buy him a present. Classic.
A comment on this Instagram post revealed that the light I gifted Hlynur had a ‘paper cup’ as a light shade instead of a can. Can’t remember what was going on there.
