Coil Pendant
From 2018–2020, I designed a new line of pendant light fixtures for LightArt. I also helped develop a process that allows us to use recycled scrap resin from our own production and from our parent company, 3Form. This versatile resin, which would have ended up in a landfill, is almost 100% recaptured and finds new life as the base of the Coil Pendant line.
Deliverable: Pendant Light Fixture + Recycling Process
Discipline: Industrial Design + Engineering
Duration: 2 years
Team: LightArt + 3Form + Avient
The Problem: Waste Plastic
Humanity produces its own weight in plastic waste each year, about 300 million tons
Plastic pollution is causing a rapid increase in extinctions, can be hazardous to human health, and is helping to accelerate climate change.
How can we throw away less?
Development Timeline
Existing Paradigm
LightArt and its parent company, 3Form, produce many parts cut from sheets of plastic resin. Despite extensive waste-reduction measures, some amount of waste is inherent in any subtractive manufacturing process like this.
New Process
In collaboration with engineers at 3Form and the plastics company Avient, I developed a process to recycle almost 100% of the scrap resin material.
This resin is difficult to recycle because it is often bonded to color films, fabrics, or even natural materials like grass. The new process involved fine-tuning an optical sorting machine and developing an additive and colorant profile that can deliver an attractive finish for our recycled material.
Color, Material, Finish
We decided to produce a pendant light fixture using recycled materials and 3D printing. I worked with Avient and 3Form engineers to develop a matte compounded material using our scrap that eliminates the undesirable glossiness of the base resin. This blend is the result of over a dozen prototyping rounds on lab extruders.
Can we make trash attractive?
Using a digital microscope helped me document and demonstrate microtexture
Exploration: Form Centers Material
From the start, we knew the story of this product had to center the recycled material. We kept this in mind throughout the form exploration phase.
Texture: Tactile, Familiar, Natural
During this time, I also experimented with Grasshopper and Java to create various textures. These serve the dual purpose of creating a pleasing aesthetic, and hiding any minor imperfections from the production process. 3D printed layers can look “too perfect,” so I decided to lean into the “imperfect” nature of the material. I also wanted to celebrate the manufacturing process, using the printed layer lines to our advantage. The final texture is a simple, subtle pattern which evokes the manufacture of the product’s namesake, traditional Coil pots.
I created over a dozen variations of these textures, and polled LightArt’s sales reps and inside sales team to help choose the best one.
The choice was validated when we received rave reviews from clients and interior design agencies.
Sustainable Packaging
2020 Product Launch
In June 2020, we launched with 7 forms in black and white
Coil generated a wave of positive marketing buzz, received rave reviews from our agencies and clients, and won numerous awards including the Gray Awards, HiP Awards for Lighting, and was a finalist in the NYCxDesign Awards - Greater Good: Social + Environmental Impact.
But even greater things were to come!
2021 Line Expansion
Additions include 4 new, even larger shapes, 3 new colors, and integration of an in-house designed high performance light core.
New Colors
Colors inspired by nature. Particular focus on stone and ceramics, and warm / neutral / earth tones.
This focus highlights the product’s sustainability.
New Color Launch: Early 2021
Because of the groundwork I had done with 3Form and our resin compounder, we were able to get a set of PANTONE color matched samples made and approved in only a few weeks.
We will soon be able to offer custom colors for large orders.
New Forms
Samples napkin sketches from my development notebook
