That will be a hard pass from me.
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Adds a whole new level of meaning to the phrase “turn on the light.”
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Back when I was in design school, one of the final year students designed a fire extinguisher for use in care-homes or hospitals.
It was a phallic looking device about 1.8 m tall and 30 cm in diameter with two egg shaped canisters at its base. The canisters stored chemicals that when mixed would expand and form a fire retardant gel. It could be moved easily on a flat surface on castors hidden beneath the ̶t̶e̶s̶t̶i̶c̶l̶e̶s̶ s̶t̶o̶r̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶s̶p̶h̶e̶r̶e̶s̶ base.
The idea was that it could be slid unobtrusively to the bedside of elderly residents and if there was a fire, it would e̶j̶a̶c̶u̶l̶a̶t̶e̶ s̶p̶u̶r̶t̶ s̶h̶o̶o̶t̶ dispense the fire retardant goo from its m̶u̶s̶h̶r̶o̶o̶m̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶t̶i̶p̶ top section, all over the unfortunate individuals to prevent them catching fire long enough to be evacuated.
I mean the whole concept was seriously flawed, not least by the fact that there was no aiming mechanism. But there was no particular need to go with such a form-factor. It could have been pretty much any other shape. And it had been through a six month long design process with industrial sponsors, tutors and student design teams and apparently no-one had noticed.
Me and my drinking buddy/design partner were literally reduced to tearful hysterics at the wine-and-cheese exhibition opening, much to the chagrin of the polo-neck and spectacles designistas who were taking the thing fucking seriously!
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I thought it would be bigger.
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Go forth and make happy memes, fellow Mutants:
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When i went to college for graphic design our teacher made sure that one of the first things he taught us was to question our designs to see if we were inadvertently adding anything sexual, phallic, yonic, etc. Over the years since it’s been rather surprising to see how often i see other people fall into this inadvertent design trap
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In all seriousness, I think that’s a really important lesson. It should probably be part of a presentation about Self Referential Design more generally.
But it wasn’t on out curriculum at the time and I don’t know for sure, but I doubt it is now either.
I used to tell that story (above) as part of a Product Semantics lecture that I used to do when I was teaching.
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I had some interesting teachers most of my life. In middle school in Venezuela we had a Civics class, which the closest equivalent in the US is Home Ec and our teacher covered advertising, some common mechanisms to get your attention (repetition, subliminal, symbolism, etc), and how to spot what they’re trying to do to make yourself less prone to being manipulated. Sex was one of the mechanisms we covered so i’ve been keenly aware of these design traps (intentional and otherwise) from a young age.
On a side note: My college teacher’s other big rant/lesson was bad typography and it’s also one of those things that i now have a hard time unseeing when i’m out and about. Drives my gf crazy sometimes 
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This is the sort of lamp Robert Yang would design.
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THIS!!
What a valuable lesson that is! If only it were more widely taught!
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Its definitely difficult to avoid the effects of advertising. I’m a very self-aware person and i still succumb to a lot of BS, but i agree that this is a highly important skill to start developing from a young age 
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I’m immune to advertising to the point of it being disadvantageous!
Sometimes I’m very late to pick up on things that are beneficial. Like Ikea for example. I love Ikea now but I was very cynical about it for a good while before I finally went so see what it was about.
On the other hand, very very occasionally I’ll see a product (not an ad for a product) and just absolutely fall in love with it. And when that happens, it’s usual that I’ll love that thing forever. I don’t just buy it and lose interest in it.
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Now picture how you’d make it act like a strobe…
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There is simply no excuse for not having the light fade on and off. Would be even better if sheath position could determine brightness, but just a simple, sensor-free fade would still improve it muchly.
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Oh, you wanted the floor model.
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I don’t care where you put it.
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In all fairness, a lot of them didn’t want to put a sleeve on it in the first place.
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