Acrylic Led Light Base

For my project I decided to create an acrylic led light using a light base and sheet of clear acrylic. The light shines through the acrylic giving it color while also projecting my design with the light. For the design of my light I created multiple, including this mushroom design. My target audience is primarily people my age because I feel like the design of mushrooms is popular within teenage girls. My project would also be suitable for people that enjoy DIYing things or are into decorating rooms because it could make good room decor for a house or bedroom. 

Materials:

• Clear acrylic
• Led light base
• Laser cutter
• Illustrator

Tools:

• Pen tool
• Shape tools: rectangle tool, ellipse tool, polygon tool
• Shape builder tool

First I sketched my designs with pencil and paper and uploaded my file to illustrator.

I used my uploaded image to start tracing my design starting with the shape of the design, a mushroom.

I continued tracing the details from my image using the pen tool and shape tool to create the flowers.

I added more detail to my flowers be using the pen tool to create lines for variation.

I also added clusters of shapes to fill in the white space in my design using the pen tool as well.

Next, I added texture details to the stem of the mushroom using the pen tool.

I also used the shape and shapebuilder tools to create a base of grass for the mushroom to fill up more of the empty space and imperfections on the bottom of the mushroom.

Lastly for illustrator, I used the shape and shape builder tools to create the outer shape for the acrylic when it gets cut. I measured the rectangle at the bottom as well to fit into the light base.

To make my design print ready I had to make all of my elements into paths so that the machine could engrave/cut them. I also color coded the engraving elements to be black and the cutting elements to red.

Finally, we printed my design onto the clear acrylic, creating the surface that the light would shine through. I assembled the light by inserting the acrylic into the nook in the light base and it was done! I turned the light on and watched my design light up in the color of the led light.