Product Design focus on Chinese Lanterns.

Chinese Lanterns are a particular iconic Product Design that can be witnessed during the celebrations of Chinese new year and is identified by the majority of the world. The iconic squashed sphere form, uses of vibrant,deep red colours, the application intricate gold decoration and base tassels are some of the key features of the Chinese Lantern which makes it such an eye catching product that can be seen from far.

What i particularly like about the lantern is the structure of its body form and the uses of material in order to produce such product with a fantastic weight to strength ratio. The main material used for the lantern is paper, structured and formed around severally different shaped inner rings which act as a support structure to the entire product, allowing the lantern to stay in its position, literally a spine for the product.

Although the main material is paper, once structured with the inner spine, the product design makes this item incredibly sturdy. This type of product design can also be seen in a lot of house lighting such as lamp shades and miniature lamps. There are multiple reasons for the use of this design to be applied to home appliances, some of which include:

1. Lightweight product.
2. Thin paper allows a good amount of light to be visible through.
3. Can be flat packed for easy transportation.
4. Can be applied to a variety of living environments.


As the inner rings vary in size, the product can be folded down to be flat packed, ideal for product transportation but also allows for minimal packaging to be used, saving excessive material costings.

Another advantage of use material as the main body material is that it allows for easy application of image and text printing. There are multiple printing methods that can be applied to paper which offers the designer a variety of finishes, effects such as a foil stamp printing to product similar gold details which can be seen on the Chinese Lanterns. The Lanterns can also be recycled easily and are easy to dispose due to easy biodegration.

Find out more about Lantern & Product Design.