Drawing Board

There are always a variety of ideas floating around. Some don’t get further than a passing thought, some get sketched-up and tinkered with for days before getting shelved. Occasionally one gets through to prototyping. This page is intended as a sample of a few things that we have played around with recently. Most of these below are variations on the Nixie clock theme but we’ve got some lovely lamp design ideas coming into focus which we will add here once we’ve done a bit more work on them.

Whale Nixie desk clockThis is an early stage development based on our Wing Nixie desk clock. The idea is to bring a bit of the natural world (a whale) in to the design to compliment the engineering reference (the wing) in our characteristic BLOTT WO… — **Whale Nixie desk clock**
This is an early stage development based on our **Wing** Nixie desk clock. The idea is to bring a bit of the natural world (a whale) in to the design to compliment the engineering reference (the wing) in our characteristic BLOTT WORKS manner. So here we have a wing-shaped flying whale standing on a snow sled, with six illuminated riders, which seems to make perfect sense to us.

Digger Nixie desk clockThis is another take on a desk Nixie clock developed around the same time as Wing but not taken any further yet. It combines all the usual BLOTT WORKS elements - concrete base, handle and gear mechanism, aluminium frame etc - … — **Digger Nixie desk clock**
This is another take on a desk Nixie clock developed around the same time as **Wing** but not taken any further yet. It combines all the usual BLOTT WORKS elements - concrete base, handle and gear mechanism, aluminium frame etc - with a four tube Nixie clock. Turn the handle and the clock bucket is raised and lowered, mainly for the fun of it but also to offer different positions/shapes.

Balance lamps - Ski designThis design began when I recognised two simple truths - a mug moves horizontally when held by someone in a rocking chair and the chair rocks by shifting weight. I have wanted to do something with gravity and balance for a w… — **Balance lamps - Ski design**
This design began when I recognised two simple truths - a mug moves horizontally when held by someone in a rocking chair and the chair rocks by shifting weight. I have wanted to do something with gravity and balance for a while but was waiting for a pure and elegant idea to find me. I realised I could use these truths to design a lamp that can be extended over a workspace through the simple act of moving a weight.

Sail Nixie clockSail was an early idea for a Nixie clock. Like Digger, we wanted to use the familiar BLOTT WORKS elements to produce a Nixie clock with a mechanical feature. The problem is that there’s not a lot of reason to have a mechanical featur… — **Sail Nixie clock**
**Sail** was an early idea for a Nixie clock. Like **Digger**, we wanted to use the familiar BLOTT WORKS elements to produce a Nixie clock with a mechanical feature. The problem is that there’s not a lot of reason to have a mechanical feature, but we thought it might be nice to have the option to convert the clock into a flickering lamp by lowering an opaque glass screen down in front of the tubes. This might be handy at night time or another time when you’d rather not be distracted by the Nixie numbers.

Tree Penny Falls donations kioskThis is a commission from Malvern Theatres following an introduction from a customer. They had a fairly standard collection point in their foyer but wanted something more engaging and eye-catching. The interactivity o… — **Tree Penny Falls donations kiosk**
This is a commission from Malvern Theatres following an introduction from a customer. They had a fairly standard collection point in their foyer but wanted something more engaging and eye-catching. The interactivity of the design is based on the Penny Falls arcade game but reconfigured to work in a circular way. The collection of these rotating money catchers are grouped together to form a miniature group of trees as a nod to the beautiful park at the back of the building. When they are contained in the large bell jar they give the impression of a terrarium. The dimensions, 500 mm diameter by 950 mm high, work within the footprint of the original collection point.

Cityscape mechanical tableThis idea for a piece of furniture or table centre piece came out of nowhere while we were working on other things. Essentially this is a collection of wood blocks made from different varieties of wood, grouped together in … — **Cityscape mechanical table**
This idea for a piece of furniture or table centre piece came out of nowhere while we were working on other things. Essentially this is a collection of wood blocks made from different varieties of wood, grouped together in a grid so that they can be raised and lowered to from varying city scapes. A light can then be shone from below to produce great light patterns. All this can be mounted in table or dish structure and operated mechanically.