Yoi Lamp for Maybesoon

Product Design, 3D Printing

Maybesoon, 2024

Yoi is a table lamp I designed together with the team at Maybesoon, a Zurich-based brand that designs and produces its own objects.

The lamp grew out of an exploration of the surfaces of 3D-printed objects and research into custom G-code. Instead of exporting a model to a slicer, I created the geometry in Grasshopper, derived the toolpath from there and generated the G-code directly in the same script.

Yoi consists of two printed parts, a funnel-shaped shade and a cylindrical base. Together with the lamp socket they hold by friction fit, without screws, glue or tools. The shade can face upward or downward, giving the lamp two different expressions.

H: 38 cm · W: 21.3 cm · 0.94 kg
Material: PLA · Light source: LED E27, 2700 K

In white and in transparent PLA. Hover to switch the lamp on.

Shade, base and cable, assembled without tools by friction fit.

Both parts are printed as one continuous spiral with unusually thick layers: 2 mm for the base and 1 mm for the shade. This gives the lamp its weight and stability and creates its characteristic ribbed surface, while keeping print times short.

The lamps are printed on Bambu Lab printers in our workshop in Zurich from PLA (polylactic acid) and are available in a wide range of colours.

Printing in transparent PLA, and the Maybesoon workshop in Zurich (photo: Studio Gataric). Click to see the next image.

Toolpaths generated in Grasshopper. Left: Base, one continuous spiral with 2 mm layers. Right: Shade, printed upside down with 1 mm layers.

The final lamp is the result of many test prints. We tested speed and flow to find the right parameters for the layer heights we were aiming for, as well as printing temperatures for different filaments and printers. At the same time, we refined the geometry of the shade and the base until we were happy with both the design and the fit of the shade in the base.

It was an iterative process moving back and forth between digital and analogue: the G-code was adjusted in Grasshopper, tested directly in print, and what we learned from each print went straight back into the script.

Test prints of shades and bases in the workshop.

Yoi at home, with the shade facing downward.

Yoi lamp with white shade and bases in different colours.

Yoi lamp with transparent shade and bases in different colours.

© Katharina Sauter 2023
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