Initial Ideas: Mesolithic Era

In the previous blog, I started noting down some initial ideas for the paleolithic era. 

In this blog, I want to focus on the mesolithic era. I want to design a lamp inspired by cavemen paintings which is made out of wood. I am still unaware of the type of lamp that I will design, however, that will be determined at the end of all initial ideas.

This was the first idea that came to mind. Looking at the cave paintings, it is evident that many animals are depicted being killed by humans. Some people believe that cavemen used to draw what kind of animals were safe to be killed and eaten on the caves as a form of communication. 

I thought of the killing theme and decided that I could depict a dead animal as the lamp base. 

I depicted a human figure in the previous lamp so I wanted this design to be relevant with animals.

I think this design has potential to be placed in a mature home. There are many people interested in the anatomy and designing of skull designs and it can look good if placed in a complementary environment. 

However, I do not like how the lamp shade is placed on top of the skull. I feel like it looks out of place and ruins the anatomy and focus of the skull.

In the previous commentary, I mentioned how the shading kind of ruined the vibe of the skull. Therefore, I decided to use the horns as a way to implement the light on them. 

Similarly to the previous design, I like the idea of the horns holding the lamps. I feel like this design could be a wall design and hung up on the wall. 

However, I do not like the particular lamp designs I chose for this product. I think it looks very bulky and big. The horns are very delicate and detailed, therefore, I want the lamps to be more slick and small. 

If I decide to proceed with this design, I could potentially add LED strips inside the horns so they can glow in the dark.

With that in mind, I like the idea of a skull being used as the theme as it reflects on the hunting which took place during that era.

The previous design sparked even more inspiration to further create another idea. I decided to eliminate the base of the skull and use the shape of the horns as an example. I added multiple rows of wood crossing each other and then added small lamps on different branches. 

The concept of this lamp design really excited me, however, the execution was not the best. I feel like there are many branches which would not be useful and it would take up sufficient space unnecessarily. 

I also think that the light emitted would not be sufficient. I think this design could not be much improved and I decided to eliminate the idea of this. 

However, having what I said previously in mind, I decided to eliminate all branches and keep one. I thought of a floor lamp that has a long branch as the lamp base. Surprisingly, I really like this idea. I think it is very modern and looks very aesthetically pleasing. 

Cavemen used a lot of wood to create many things, including their tools. Therefore, making wood one of their basic materials. 

I decided to use that as an inspiration to create the base of the lamp with wood. 

In this design, I do not like the lamp shading. I feel like that makes it very old looking and the colour of it does not match. In my development, I could look at different lamp shadings, colour, and how branches can expand to make it more interesting.

For the last lamp design, I tried to create a night light. The inspiration behind this was this picture.

Castellon Spain- Mesolithic

I decided that this could be an opportunity to explore new techniques and processes. Therefore, I decided that since wood can be easily engraved, I could perhaps engrave some actual cave paintings on a rectangular lamp. I think this turned out looking good. 

I really like how it is depicted on the surface. I could perhaps add different scenes in each side of the wood and make it more interesting. 

In my development, I also want to explore more colours and shapes. 

I think it is a good idea to also explore engravings as it is something I have not been exposed to. I can closely look into the process and learn from it. I could also completely cut out the shape of each person and animal on the pattern and add tinted glass so the light is emitted in different colours. 

Conclusion:

I think this blog post contains of many great ideas that could be developed. I definitely want to look into the skull, the floor branch and the engraving in more detail in my development. 

Unlike the previous post, I think that most of these designs came out relavitely successful keeping in mind that this is only initial ideas. I am excited to see where this goes and how it will develop.