Jaekyoung Oh captures and expresses “a child-like innocence” with Woo-bi desk lamp

Conceptualised by 27-year-old industrial designer, Jaekyoung Oh, the Woo-bi desk lamp personifies in its concept a “child-like innocence”. Woo-bi means raincoat in Korean, and the desk lamp’s friendly shape and colours are indeed modelled from “a child wearing a raincoat or walking under an umbrella,” says Oh, who is based in Seoul, South Korea. The delightfully playful lighting design aims to warm up and brighten the space it is kept in, as a child perceives the world with bright eyes and reciprocates with light and love. 

Imagined in two shades, sunny yellow and avocado green, Woo-bi Lamp embalms into one’s mind, an emotive trait, and establishes itself as a functional and adorable design. Yellow is also one of the most common shade of raincoats donned by kids in South Korea, Oh relays, while green is chosen for its characterstic association with all things calm and organic, the colour of nature.

“While the main colour for Woo-bi remains yellow, I also chose renditions in primary colours (red, blue, white, black and a colourless option) to represent the brightness and purity of kids. These are some colours that are a favourite of children and expresses their playfulness,” shares Oh.

Oh chooses recycled plastic with a matte finish as the body and top of the product design that holds a ball of LED as the light source. It does so to keep the lamp in soft, indirect focus; the toy-like form is sure to catch your attention while the material downplays harsh reflectivity that smooth surfaces garner often. Remarkably simple and endearingly cute, the desk lamp hosts a sustainable battery that can be charged via a simple circular port placed at the lower back. With its rounded, compact size (a diameter of 10cm and a height of 18cm), Woo-bi can be kept on a shelf, on a reading or coffee table or in a child’s bedroom.

The head of the Woo-bi lamp has the trademark petals of an umbrella, and can be adjusted at few angles to throw light onto surfaces profusely or indirectly. Like a child would lift up their raincoat’s hoodie, the lamp lifts up its head for brighter, more focused illumination while the straight configuration can be used as a soft, ambient reading light, according to Oh, who goes by the name of Odd Designer online. The button at the top can be rotated 180 degrees. The more you turn left, the weaker the light becomes and the power is switched off. Vice versa, the more you go toward the right, the more intense the light becomes.

“When I was young, I came across my first iPhone series back in 2009. I was really surprised by its effective technology and minimal, good looking design and interface. Since then, I have wanted to be a good product designer. I would like to deliver warmth, empathy and refreshment to someone who interacts with my designs,” says Oh, who certainly turns a desk lamp’s design into a functional concept with happiness at its core.