Most lamps are strictly functional. Save for the light they add to a dark room, they essentially disappear quietly amidst louder, larger, more noticeable home accessories. The Andromeda Lamp is a different kind of lamp. The military-inspired lamp is a functional and fashionable (if military-spec-style lighting is to your taste) design that promises to stand out in any room.
Sketchy Design Studio bills the Andromeda Lamp as the "world's first military-inspired tri rail lamp." Like the designers behind the Battle Mug, the studio realizes that scope rails aren't only functional for military purposes, but they can also look pretty gnarly when transplanted into product categories far removed from the firearm.
More than just a battle-ready look, Sketchy's patent-pending Tri Rail system allows for all kinds of adjustment and customization. The shade arms slide up and down the rails and also bend into different positions, allowing for a multitude of styles. Similarly, the legs can be repositioned.
A standard lamp shade and pull chain would be completely out of place on such an industrial design. Instead, Sketchy equips the Andromeda with custom-designed mesh shades and a hidden power switch that looks like a big, burly nut. The main body is made of anodized black aluminum. Sketchy also plans to offer some lamp accessories for customization but isn't quite ready to reveal what those are.
Sketchy has put the Andromeda Lamp on Kickstarter in hopes of funding tooling and manufacturing costs. It also mentions expanding into other types of military-esque lighting solutions, such as wall sconces and flashlights, and says that it hopes the design eventually finds use in real military applications.
The studio lists the eventual retail price at US$560, a figure that has us questioning if it has any real commercial future. It's raised more than half of its $70,000 goal, with 44 days to go, but even if it funds a production run, how many people are really going to spend $560 on a lamp that basically just looks cool? A lot of people like guns and military items, and it kind of looks like a robot or space crawler, but in the end, it's a lamp. Plus, that hefty chunk of change is only going to feel bigger when a fiance of the future throws it in the garbage with all the other cool but useless guy gear
If the designers really took advantage of the lamp's adjustable nature to flesh out some specific configurations (e.g. a work light, a game table light, etc), it could be more than just a unique table lamp – it could be lighting's answer to the Swiss Army knife. But the firm's presentation is so focused on the components and build of the lamp, it just shows it sitting there on the table with different shade settings – cool, but $560 worth of cool?
Early-adopter Kickstarter supporters can secure the lamp for a fraction of the retail price. The $229 option is already sold out, so you may want to act fast on the $279 selection, if you dig the lamp.
Source: Kickstarter
