TLDR: The Camp Lamp is available to order now. The first 100 units ship this month. Second batch ships in February.
It’s been a while since I’ve done anything with Almost Object. If you don’t know/remember, I founded the brand in 2017 as a way to produce and sell my own designs like the Bend Mirror, Spin Bottle Opener, and Stretch Clock. It enabled me to ship experimental products without the worry of turning a profit or fitting a design brief. It was more of a self-funded hobby and consequently fell down on my list of priorities.
For the past few years I’ve been focused on growing my independent studio practice by designing and licensing furniture, lighting, and objects to brands around the globe. It’s a long term game, hopefully in ten years I will have made enough connections and partnerships to have a royalty check to live off of... quite a challenging path and an essay for another time.
I’ve built up quite a catalog of concepts. I’m fortunate to have licensed a handful of them, but a large portion of my work has yet to see the light of day. I think it would be a shame to let all these designs collect dust, so I’m excited to relaunch Almost Object under a new name—
Jex
Jex aims to ignite curiosity and delight in everyone who encounters its products.
It’s never popular to change a brand name, but shortening and abstracting “objects” to “jex” gives the brand a blank slate to build on. Jex still embodies a bit of the “almost” and experimental philosophy, but this new evolution will allow it to expand into a much larger furniture brand, maybe one day becoming a household name. I plan to release old designs, as well as new ones, and am working towards making Jex a self-sustaining business. Long term I’d love to bring manufacturing in house, have a retail space, and collaborate with other designers. I’m eager to dream up a vision 50 years from now, but I’ll spare you since talk is cheap and there’s much to do before then.
Everything else remains the same, the studio’s main focus has been and will still be to design objects that embrace a delightful future. Jex is simply an additional path for producing those delightful designs beyond the licensing route.
With that said, it’s time to announce the first Jex product.
Camp Lamp
Two years ago I folded a piece of paper in half and placed it over a light. It was silly, but there was something compelling about it that I couldn’t quite shake. The triangular shape was simple and familiar, reminding me of a tent. I thought if it could fold flat and open up it would create a delightful moment, giving it just enough substance to complete the design.
When Steve Jobs introduced the first Macbook Air, he held up an office envelope and slid out the laptop, revealing the incredibly thin design. It was a genius marketing stunt and a feat of engineering at the time. This moment became a north star for the lamp. Could I make it fold down slim enough to fit in an envelope, lightbulb and all?
I began exploring different metal leg structures that could support the shade and allow it to fold flat. The obvious choice for a slim light source was to use LEDs mounted to a PCB.
The folded piece of paper seemed so simple, but it soon became a tricky balancing act of different variables. I wanted the sides to be covered, I wanted to touch the metal frame to turn it on/off, and of course I needed to be somewhat easy to manufacture.
I settle on a design where the legs hinged on a rod across the top and worked with a factory to make a sample. We used Tyvek for the shade to make it durable. It had a lot of issues. The quality was subpar, the light wasn’t touch sensitive, I didn’t like the Tyvek texture… but it did fold open!
It’s sometimes hard to distinguish between a design issue and a manufacturing issue. The two are so often intertwined. Is the product failing because of the factory, my design, or because it was the first sample? Could the lamp be easier to make? Is it even possible to connect the touch sensor to the metal legs?
I decided to give it a rest and come back another day with fresh eyes.
This project was one of those that needed time to distill. I would work on it occasionally, taking it off of the shelf or iterating on the design in VR. Eventually I was able to reimagine the structure. The new design had a single leg piece that would work on all four corners. One part, repeated four times, connecting to the LED module. The shade would simply slide over the top. A manufacturing dream.
There were a few different versions, some with legs that slid fully into a sleeve, others had small loops that attached similarly to a real tent. I narrowed in on a fully exposed hairpin style leg since I liked the exposed detail, and it had more surface area for the touch interaction.
It felt complete at first, but after letting it sit around the studio, I knew it still wasn’t quite right. It didn’t hinge open; each leg had to be snapped into the light module. I had lost that original idea of simply pulling the lamp out of the envelope and unfolding it.
I set it back on the shelf to try again another day.
Prototypes are charming. It’s almost as if there’s a Goldilocks zone where a design is almost finished, but still has a few imperfections. It’s that human made touch that feels inviting and honest. I fell in love with all the little bent wire details of these lamps and thought maybe that was the solution.
I just needed to explore bending the wires more.
The final solution was much closer to my first prototypes, but with an added bend that slides into the hem of the shade. It looks simple, but, as you now know, that wasn’t the case.
I was working with a few different factories and product development partners throughout this process and eventually found a great fit working with Derrick Hurst of Direction and Current. We were able to refine the design, select materials and finishes, build a custom LED module, and produce the lamp.
Camp Lamp is a wireless light with a triangular shape reminiscent of a tent. It fits perfectly on a nightstand or bookshelf, adding a warm glow to your space. The nylon fabric shade adds just the right amount of diffusion and texture to the light. Turn on the light by simply touching the metal crossbars. There’s even a campfire mode.
Order now on Jex.us
I’m really pleased with the final product and hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of the behind the scenes. I’d love to expand the line with a larger table lamp and tall floor lamp. I’ll be sharing more about the Camp Lamp in the coming months and have other exciting things planned for Jex.
Huge thank you to the team and friends who helped!
Derrick Hurst - product development
Henry Koehler - photography and assistance
Joshua Skirtich - brand advisor
Marc and Akuti - blockchain development
I truly appreciate everyone who’s been supportive of my work throughout the years. 2024 was an great year for the studio, and I’m eager to share all the new designs planned for 2025. Happy New Year and cheers to a delightful future!
— Nicholas Baker
Beautiful work Nick!
I'm a sucker for content documenting the real creative process. Big fan of the final product, and looking forward to more behind-the-scenes stuff.