Tuber Lamp

source: momaorg

The Tuber Lamp is a complex configuration of nine intertwined rootlike forms whose twisting heads contain light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that shine in different directions to create a wash of light. Using a parametric modeling system, Dean designed a three-dimensional animated model that constantly evolves and mutates. The Tuber Lamp’s virtual form grows and evolves within this system until a user freezes the model for production. The computer model is then “printed” out into an exact physical realization through laser sintering, a process in which particles of nylon are fused together layer by layer to create a three-dimensional mass.

This organic design and production process allows for endless variation within a defined framework while also incorporating the user into a seamless design and manufacturing process. Mass customization of design objects has become a realistic endeavor in recent years as rapid-prototyping techniques have improved; no two models of the Tuber Lamp are the same, although each bears a resemblance to the parametric model it came from. Through such projects as the Tuber Lamp, designers are working to revolutionize the role of the user in the design process and completely transform the ways in which materials are selected and assembled.
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source: stylepark

Lionel Theodore Dean graduated from the Royal College of Art, London in 1987. He worked as an automotive designer, for Pininfarina in Italy, before launching his own consultancy business with a full-size concept car at the 1989 Tokyo Auto Salon.

Initially focusing on small cars and motorcycles, Lionel’s work spread from the mid-nineties into interior products, in particular lighting. Lionel’s products are very much design led: through his work he seeks to explore the boundaries between Art and Design.

In 2002 Lionel was appointed Designer in Residence at Huddersfield University and he began working on FutureFactories, a digital manufacturing (Rapid Prototyping) concept for the mass individualisation
of products. The project has been a great success with acclaimed exhibitions in London and Milan.