The junior design students in Professor Kevin Reeder's studio had little time to settle themselves in for the 2006 Spring Semester before jumping into their first project. The task was to design and prototype a light in two weeks.

As you can imagine, the principal challenge of this assignment was its rapid pace.
"As their first project, it was constructed to move quickly to see what could be accomplished in a short amount of time," said Reeder. "The product forms were wonderfully far reaching with very little duplication of ideas. For their first project of the semester, it was very successful. I found they could bring a concept to fruition in a short amount of time."

Design students are no strangers to working efficiently and quickly.

"Within hours, we generated dozens of concepts," said Jason Bishop, ID student. "We applied the knowledge we gained as sophomores in the "Singing Lights" project in which we had to design lights inspired by a song of our choice."

In this project, students were asked to design ambient or specific task lighting for use in the home. The students were also asked to design the packaging as well. Appearance and esthetics were stressed as was defining a theme or meaning of the light.

The final lighting devices included an array of products including sconces, floor lamps, table lamps, and pendant lamps illuminating influences from a variety of different sources.

"The event was a fun kick-off for 2006 and served as a helpful segues into our semester-long, corporate-sponsored Aqualair project," said Bishop.

For more information on Georgia Tech's Industrial Design Program, visit http://www.coa.gatech.edu/id/.