When we checked-in with our student designers this Saturday at WantedDesign, they had just started on their challenge with the straight-forward parameters: make a light using laser-cut acrylic and 3M-donated films. Students representing six design schools from the United States and France were hard at work sketching, modeling and exchanging ideas on how to best execute forms and functionalities with the given materials. Participating schools are Art Center College of Design, Parsons The New School for Design, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), ENSCI les ateliers, Ecole Boulle and Ecole supérieure d'art et design Saint-Etienne.

After 24-hours of building models, students from all six schools presented and were then mixed and matched based on their individual ideas. The next phase of the project: overcoming language barriers to build a final lighting concept incorporating the ideas from the full project team. Read our exclusive interview with Student Design Challenge instigator, François Brument.