Unacceptable Designs

The Lamp Project has specific criteria about the design process and problem solving. Both are major parts of the project. Another extremely important part is creating a beautiful lamp; a work of art and design. What the project is not about is making a copy of a design that you might have seen in the mall, at Ikea, or in a "How To" video/website/book. Although those lamps may be quite interesting, and you are free to make one for yourself on your own time, it would not fulfill the assignment.

Further, there is a term in the world of intellectual property as well as in education: plagiarism. Copying an existing lamp design is the equivalent of copying a painting, a song, a story, a speech (think Melania plagiarizing Michelle), or a research paper. All of these are strictly forbidden in education. For more information on this topic, please check out the Copyrights and Academic Honesty page.

Below are a few examples of lamps that students have repeatedly copied over the years - some claiming they originated the concepts. The problem is, they didn't, and claiming so is pure and simple plagiarism.

If, on the other hand, you become inspired by something you've seen, making it your own by substantially changing it MAY be acceptable. With enough change, it may be considered acceptable from the standpoint of copyright. But it still may not count as part of the Lamp Project - at least without approval from the instructor ahead of time.