A couple years ago, industrial designer Bert Simons created a stunning truncated icosahedron hanging light made from paper. And while the paper lamp is undeniably impressive, a recent upgrade to Simons’ design is really lighting us up. Called the Isoled_V2, the new version of the hanging lamp is made up of 3D printed parts, making it sturdier and more resilient than its earlier paper counterpart.
Simons studied industrial design at the Design Academy Eindhoven and has gone on to create various projects in the fields of product and interior design, prototyping, coding, CGI, and more. His paper Isoled light was an illuminating piece, which combined geometric icosahedron shapes and arduino programmed LEDs. As you can see in the video below, the result is pretty cool.
3D printed Isoled_V2 (left), paper Isoled (right)
Now, Simons has unveiled a new and (dare I say) improved version of his hanging light, made with the help of 3D printing. According to the designer, he recently acquired a 3D printer and wanted to make a sturdier, less vulnerable version of his design. As he writes on his website, “The paper isoled light I made before looked good but was very vulnerable and having bought a 3d printer recently this was a nice opportunity to make a plastic one.” We couldn’t agree with him more!
The 3D printed Isoled_V2 went through many iterations, the earliest of which involved a 3D printed icosahedron structure on which paper pyramid structures could be added. Eventually, after seeing his paper prototype get damaged, he realized that 3D printing the entire structure would be much more efficient.
Early iterations of the Isoled_V2 lamp
As you can see in the photos below, Simons ultimately 3D printed a number of five- and six-sided truncated pyramids. As he explains, he could not print the whole modules in one go, so had to print the top covers separately. These were simply clicked on at the end of the construction. To build the lamp’s structure, the designer 3D printed a total of 20 hexagonal truncated pyramids (and 20 matching top covers), 12 pentagonal pyramids (with 12 top covers), and a number of connectors.
For the lighting function, Simons used a strand of 12 mm diffused RBG LEDs (also a change from his paper light, for which he soldered ws2812 LEDs himself). Powered by an arduino, the LED lights can be controlled via smartphone, voice commands, or simply by a knob. As you can see in the video demonstration of the Isoled_V2, the color and rhythm of the lights can be adjusted for a variety of moods.
