Lamps inspired by a Hardware Store
Vicente makes weird lamps from things he finds at the hardware store. We met him, and had him design some lamps using Monos as the light source.
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Designing the Monos Experience
Time for the finale of our three-part story of Monos - Designing the Experience.
One of the things we pride ourselves on is “experiential design” - designing experiences for others. We forged this skill over the last 10 years of creating art installations for hundreds of thousands of people.
Designing the experience is where the magic is made - ensuring the hardware, software, and programming all sing together in harmony to tell a story, to invoke different emotions in our audience.
Jake, one of the founders of color+light, is primarily responsible for this experiential design. Here’s what he had to say about Monos:
With Monos, we set out to create something truly distinct. Our dynamic, immersive lighting engine is at the heart of the product, so it was essential to give it the right canvas. We designed internal dividers inside the Monos shade to separate the canvas into 5 distinct faces.
By enabling each face of the Monos to animate independently, we unlocked the ability to create richer, more saturated visuals that are more exciting, and have more dimensionality to them.
Additionally, instead of settling for a typical plastic-looking lamp shade, we chose high-quality acrylic that offers a refined, glass-like appearance.
These two elements combine to form a depth of immersion we have not seen in other products. With this canvas, we aspire to be able to invoke feelings similar to sitting under a sky full of stars, cozying up next to a fireplace, or feeling the morning sun.
And finally, to make the interaction feel seamless and intuitive, we added an IR sensor that lets users control the lamp with a simple wave—no buttons, just a little bit of magic.
An Art Installation at Caesar's Palace
We just wrapped up an art installation at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas - check it out below.
The installation was a pair of 15 feet tall LED trees, which became the centerpiece of a “Wellness Zone” for a Life Sciences company conference.
We design and engineer each tree together with our art fabrication partners based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Learn more about our process below!
Initial Sketches and conversations with our client turn to 3D models - which we review together until the design is fully approved. Check out the final 3D models below.
Next, we start fabrication! These trees have a steel base, covered by some simple benches to allow people to sit under the tree.
A fabrication drawing for the actual welded steel piping that makes up the structure of the tree is then made from the 3D model.
Next, the fun begins and the steel is welded to spec!
Once the steel frame of the tree is built, it is covered with a “bark epoxy” and hand sculpted to get a realistic tree look.
Separately, the LED hardware and electrical system for the tree is designed and ordered straight to the installation site. Once the tree itself was done being built, it was loaded onto a 16 foot flatbed truck and driven from Santa Fe to Las Vegas.
On site is when the tree is re-built, electrical system installed, and LED twigs are placed at the end of each branch.
Once the tree installation is done, the software that controls the LEDs needs to be installed and configured, and lighting content programmed. This last part is the chef's kiss that makes the true magic happen - we call it experiential design.
Every square inch of these trees is a work of art, and we were proud to mesmerize the conference guests with this otherworldly installation.
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