Press Release
Glow Globs Lighting Installation by Virginia Melnyk Wins the Bronze A' Design Award in Lighting Products and Fixtures Design
Virginia Melnyk acknowledged for lighting products and fixtures design by the international grand jury of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2021 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Bronze A' Design Award in the Lighting Products and Fixtures Design category for Glow Globs Lighting Installation by Virginia Melnyk, designed for Virginia Melnyk Designs. The award was conferred within the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Bronze A' Design Award
The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.
More About Glow Globs Lighting Installation
Glow Globs is an inflatable lighting installation made of white nylon fabric, a blower fan and LED lights. The installation consists of three abstract forms, each measuring between 2.5 and 3 meters in each direction. The shapes were developed with three-dimensional modeling and were inspired by smoke and air flow. Each form is built from 80 to 100 sewn panels. LED lights are suspended inside, so the color changing light is diffused softly through the fabric. The forms collapse when the fan is switched off, so the installation can be moved and deployed at other locations.
About Virginia Melnyk
Virginia Melnyk received her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Urban Planning in 2007, and her Masters in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design 2010. She has worked at leading architecture firms in LA, London, New York City, and Beijing. Currently she is a lecturer at Clemson University, and a PhD student in the DigtialFutures international PhD program at Tongji University. Her research is focused around architectural space and textiles. Exploring soft architecture and transformable place. She bridged the highly feminine field of textiles with the mostly male dominated architectural field.
Award Record
With this recognition, Virginia Melnyk is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Lighting Products and Fixtures Design Award
The A' Lighting Design Award is an international lighting design competition recognizing good lighting designs by best lighting designers and brands worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to lighting designers, lighting architects, industrial design studios and lighting product manufacturers from all countries. Typical entries include chandeliers, pendant lights, wall sconces, table lamps, floor lamps and outdoor lights. The awarded lighting designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/lighting
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/112445
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/112445
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!112445
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/286811
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://bit.ly/2SeTqXW
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Glow Globs Lighting Installation
- Function
- Lighting Installation
- Category
- Lighting Products and Fixtures Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Furniture & Home and Electronics & Appliances
- Colors
- Orchid, Medium Orchid, Black, Violet and Dark Slate Gray
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Virginia Melnyk Designs
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Virginia Melnyk
- Country
- United States of America
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2020 - 2021
- Design ID
- #112445
Credits
- Image Credits
- Photo Credits: Virginia Melnyk
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Glow Globs is an inflatable lighting installation, its unique design is deployable as the light fabric collapse with the fan is off. The Design is abstract shapes to spark curiosity and imagination. The shapes at night are illuminated with color changing LED lights. The lights penetrate through the Nylon material giving them a soft glow.
- Inspiration
- This project was inspired by the character inflatable lawn ornaments so commonly display in many front lawns of American homes during the holidays. But in contrast to the Santa Claus and Frankenstein that we see during the holidays. Glow Globs aspired to create an abstract organic form that would inspire imagination and creative thinking. The design was created in the computer using 3d modeling. Because it is inflated with air the designs were inspired by smoke and animations of airflow.
- Research
- My research is focused on sewing and three dimensional designs. i am interested in approaches to combine sewn forms into the built environment. Often engaging traditional and computation design making methodologies. In this case sewing large scale inflatables with large numbers of pieces methods from parametric computational architecture were adapted. As for the sewing methods from quilting, and dress making were adapted. the combination of making techniques and process of construction resulted in a unique design.
- Challenge
- Because the installation is pneumatic, it is important to understand how flat pieces of fabric will inflate. The fans blow in a lot of air and it is important to make sure that all the seams are sewn tightly. And that there are no leaks. At the same point the inflatable is under pressure and if the distribution of forces is uneven large amounts of force on one place may cause issues of pressure and seams to rip or tear. Studies done in Clo3D and Kangaroo for grasshopper, were able to give estimated simulations of where extra strain might occur when pressure is applied.
- Realization and Technology
- The design was created in the computer using 3d modeling. Patterns much like those used to make a dress or piece of clothing were generated and sewn together on a home sewing machine. Each inflatable was made up of between 80 - 100 panels. Consisting of over 400 edges to be sewn together. Each peices was numbered and labeled to be able to stich them to the correct pieces. The inflatables were designed to attach to a special air blower fan used for inflatable sculptures. Led Lights were threaded through the interior of the inflated structure and suspended so to diffuse the light before it is emitted out of the fabric.
- Operation and Interaction
- The installation was located in the landscaping in front of the Cincinnati Central Library. Here at night people would engage with the lights and play in the shadows of the colored illuminations.
- Project Duration and Location
- The installation is traveling. It was first installed for 3 days at Blink Art Festival in Cincinnati 2019, but can continue to be deployed at other locations and events.
- Specifications
- The design consisted of three unique inflatables. Each design was between 3 meters and 2.5 meters in each direction.
- Keywords
- LED, Inflatable, Lighting, Installation, Deployable, PopUp
