Fabian Schleyerbach wins „coOLED“ - design competition with OLED of Fraunhofer COMEDD

Fabian Schleyerbach about his decision to design a table lamp: „My idea was to develop a luminaire, which combines regenerative and natural materials with the high-tech illuminant OLED in a traditional and handcrafted way with minimalistic modern shape. This enables optimal desktop illumination and the OLED is put in the limelight as best as possible. Furthermore the advantages of the OLED as an extremely flat and glare free light source at direct eye contact can be highlighted in comparison to other illuminants.”

The third ideas competition of the LICHT magazine and the Trade Fair Berlin confronted the students with the task to create a portable lighting solution using OLED, which meets the requirements and parameters of the OLED. The students of the branches lighting-, product-, industrial- and communication design, architecture, interior design and lighting engineering had to present distinctive designs, which are lighting object and functional lamp together and can be a »must have« for innovative technology and design loving people. It should be possible to manufacture the design by reasonable means so that the lighting solution should not be expensive to buy.

The lighting of Fabian Schleyerbach consists of an oak batten, four TABOLA®-OLED and a sewn felt strip on the back. A tin element, which is integrated in the base of the lamp, provides the necessary stability for erecting the oak bar via flexure and serves as a touch dimmer.

The jury states that the winning design model is a successful combination of the innovative OLED technology with traditional materials like wood and felt. Britta Hölzemann from the magazine LICHT, who organizes the competition on behalf of the Trade Fair Berlin, explains: „The model is a perfect example for sustainability: only renewable materials have been used and it does not have any glueings, which helps to simplify recycling. The simplicity of the design underlines the aesthetics of the OLED: The luminaire is flat, narrow and rectangular. This shape could be packaged and dispatched with low material costs and highlights the aspect of sustainability again. Furthermore the shaping enables universal application – the lighting can be erected but can also be used in lying or hanging position.“

Of course Jan Hesse, OLED designer at Fraunhofer COMEDD and speaker of the jury, is delighted:„As a fan of the OLED technology it was a really great pleasure for me to see how professional and imaginative the students dealt with the various possibilities of OLED. Great designs resulted from this and I am especially proud that the lighting with our TABOLA® won the competition - congratulations to Fabian Schleyerbach!“

Although he abstained from the final voting, Jan Hesse explains that it was not an easy decision for the jury to select from the ten best designs. 121 students from nine universities all throughout Germany applied for the competition. The top-class jury selected the ten best designs out of 87 submissions. Finally eight students decided to build a model and were supported generously with material sponsoring from Philips Lumiblade and Fraunhofer COMEDD.