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Industry’s increasing expectations for optimization within product design are clearly evidenced today. Designing physical objects for mass production involves a range of critical considerations. As part of these considerations, shaping the external surfaces of a clay model, a mock-up or a final model intended for mass production often constitutes complex considerations, where visual qualities such as shape, surface structure and texture must be assessed. Light constitutes a critical framework for aesthetical assessment during this process. This paper explores in particular how light may be utilized - as one critical resource - in order to enable the designer to build control and insight through visual observations during the act of designing an artefact or product. During a series of experiments where different shapes with different form characteristics have been exposed to different light sources, light’s capability as a form-analytical tool has been assessed. These experiments have produced a body of knowledge and a growing awareness of the essential role of light as a form-describing tool during the design process. This paper explains our ambition to develop an approach for a form describing tool when designing products. Our intention has been to describe how the conscious use of light may contribute as an important and valuable asset as a form-analytical tool for both product designers and design students during the product design process.

Keywords:

Light, Product Design Process, Observations, Visual Perception, Form Characteristics