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Dino Sanchez Builds A DIY Series of Lamps Inspired By ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape

07.17.12 | By
Dino Sanchez Builds A DIY Series of Lamps Inspired By ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape

It’s been a while since our first “Inspired by…” post in which designer Brad Ascalon created a concept bag inspired by the Ultrabook. The reason I started this Inspired by… series was to give designers the opportunity to explore new materials and push the boundaries of what’s possible as well as give us a peek into the design process. But, most of all, it’s just plain fun.

And what’s more fun than tearing off strips of blue tape after you’ve painted a wall, forming a giant tape ball indicative of all your hard work? It’s satisfying, really, when you squish all that tape together into that giant mass of stickyness. And that idea was the starting point for the following project.

I presented NYC-based designer Dino Sanchez with a challenge to design and build something using 3M’s iconic ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape in just a few days. Dino is not only resourceful, but has a knack for taking everyday materials and piecing them together into beautiful, minimalist products.

He thoughtfully hand-crafted not one, but two (!), lamps using 3M’s iconic ScotchBlue tape and even used the tape to hold it all together! Check out the process in Dino’s own words:

When this opportunity came along the first thing that came to mind was a bundle of layered blue tape. It’s an object that has become synonymous with painting, so I knew I wanted to create something that referred to it.

3M ScotchBlue tape is very accessible and available at any hardware store. Going along with that I wanted to create something just as accessible, simple enough that anyone could make. The goal was to use as few materials and tools possible. It was important that all the pieces could be purchased anywhere ScotchBlue tape could also be purchased.

For any project, the first thing I do is sketch out my ideas. I arrived at creating a light for a couple of reasons. For one, I’ve been obsessing over lighting for the past couple years, so its top of mind and we’re creating a lot of them. Secondly, I wanted to keep focus on the iconic blue of the tape and light seemed like the most direct way to give it life and celebrate it.

In parallel with sketching, I always create models. Lots and lots of models. At first I was looking at creating something entirely out of tape, using pure geometry to hold the form. This ended up being quite time consuming and complex so I started playing around with additional materials.

What I ended up with was a set of lamps constructed solely of ScotchBlue tape, wooden dowels and a corded light source. The only other thing needed is a tool for cutting the dowels.

ScotchBlue tape is quite responsive and holds it’s shape very well. It’s easy to massage the tape into whatever shape you want and make the joints you need. It’s adhesion is really strong, yet it comes off very easily and cleanly. It allows for making mistakes and starting over.

After the structures were complete, I wrapped each of them with tape.

The first lamp is a pentagram structure with three legs, the second, a rectangular box with four legs. The light shining through emphasizes the layers of tape wrapped around the structures. These two shapes represent only a fraction of the possibilities, so enjoy!

Lamp A Off

Lamp A On

Lamp A Detail

Lamp B Off

Lamp B Detail

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.