When its time for children to go to sleep darkness can often be intimidating and scary, light is often the only source of comfort for them. “Loci” acts as a protective spirit; sitting, for example, on a side table by the bed emitting a warm glow which guards the child whilst it falls asleep. If the child wakes up at night it can pick Loci up from its base and carry it around so as to always protect them.

The project came about through a competition brief which was based around the "genius loci" design principle. Forrest saw it as an opportunity to do a design project for a children's night light which he had been putting off for a while. He ended up choosing a sphere as the main form for the object because to a child light acts as a guardian spirit and to me a sphere was the most appropriate. Due to it being a product used at night the base was to naturally be black; he added a contrast where the split line of the base would be by using matte and gloss finishes. The sphere itself took inspiration from the muji aroma diffuser that sits on my bedside table, opting for a warm glow through frosted ABS.

- Forrest Radford

The project started as most do with sketches on paper. Forrest already had an idea of what he wanted to create so he was able to run through concepts quite quickly. He moved onto card models quite quickly to help him understand the form and sizing of the design better and with time being quite limiting he began modelling it on Rhino3d and used Keyshot to test materials and nighttime renders (something Forrest had never attempted before) at the same time. With a final design he was able to work out how he wanted to communicate the concept. Once he has chosen the shots he was going to render he used a Nikon D80 to photograph mine (and his girlfriend's) hands around the muji light and was able photoshopped them onto the render outputs. The whole project was quite fast and achieved over a couple of weekends.

- Forrest Radford

People seem to like the concept of this project, which is what Forrest was mainly trying to achieve, rather than to create a very technical product with exploded views and such. He certainly improved my ability to visualize and learnt much about taking photos in the dark along side how to composite these images with the renders. For me being able to communicate the concept is really important, the finer details can be worked out after you and others understand the project's narrative fully.

- Forrest Radford

About Forrest Radford

Forrest Radford is a Product Design Graduate of Central Saint Martins. He is a very hands on designer with a background in craftsmanship and because of this, he has a strong relationship with development through making. Currently Forrest is working with Chris Lefteri Design, a Technology Start up, and on his own Design consultancy with a friend of his.

• Behance