taeg nishimoto's series of randomly creased blurred lamps surprises you with its subtle colors

taeg nishimoto — a japanese architect, designer, and educator — released a new ‘blurred’ series of white table and pendant lamps that surprise you with the appearance of colors on the surface when the light is turned on. each fixture is made of three sides of white creased surface in a triangular formation. in daylight they appear as if they are made of a porcelain-like volume with creased surfaces. when the light is turned on, this volume reveals subtle, blurred colors on the surface, unexpectedly changing the appearance of the fixture.

one volume is made of three sides
all images © taeg nishimoto

nishimoto‘s lamps are made of layers of heat-responsive polyvinyl on the outside and heat resistant polyester sheets inside. both outer and inner layers are initially cut in square with the outer one is about 1.3 times longer in both directions. the transparent outer layer is first coated with white liquid rubber on one side by spraying, which creates a fine texture of white on the surface, while the opposite side is kept completely smooth. after application of this liquid rubber coating, the square sheet is held at four corners to the base, which is the same size as the smaller inner layer, in a way the outer layer forms a parabolic surface with liquid rubber surface on the bottom side.

surface close-up of lit and unlit

the heated air blown onto the surface from outside slowly deforms the parabolic surface into randomly creased pattern based on the direction of the air and the interacting resistance from the sheet. the inner layer is applied with a transparent color stain in a manner of scattered spots of different sizes, using primary colors. the creased outer layer and the inner one with color stain are connected at four corners, forming one side. as a result, the three sides are secured at adjacent corners in a triangular formation. the final assembly is approximately 30cm cube when three sides are connected together.

lit and unlit

when the light is turned on, the bulb inside projects the stained colors of the inner layer onto the inside of the outer layer. because of the distance between the inner and outer layers as well as the texture of the liquid rubber inside of the outer layer, the colors appear blurry on the exterior surface, which also responds to the crease patterns. there is a natural phenomenon called “cloud iridescence”, which is caused by small water droplets or ice crystals in the clouds individually scattering the sunlight and the blurring, iridescent patterns appear within the cloud formation against the blue sky. ‘blurred’ takes its cue from this rather ethereal and fragile phenomenon to present the presence of colors on the surface of the lighting fixture as an object in space, in an unanticipated and pictorial way. 

two table lamps lit showing different colors and surface patterns

colors emerge when it’s lit

colors blur on the surface

different sides show different colors

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: maria erman | designboom