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Alex Chow
Industrial Designer
Alex is an industrial designer who makes fun and eye-catching home furnishings. A graduate of RISD's Furniture Design program, he works full time for a design studio that develops new technology products.
San Francisco, California
Get to know Alex Chow
Why are you interested in designing lights?
Lights are fun for me because I get to work with a lot of pre-existing parts. It’s almost like playing with LEGOs, because you’re using off-the-shelf parts. You get to mix and match those wires and switches. Then, of course, you get to combine those with new custom parts.
What’s another light design you’ve worked on?
I created another light with a wind-up toy mechanism on top. It encourages people to turn it, which adjusts the brightness. It’s a really simple interaction, and anyone can understand what it does just by looking at it.
What’s unique about working with a company like Gantri?
3D printing creates a lot of opportunities to try new things you can’t do in traditional manufacturing. Printing parts allows you to circumvent traditional processes, which were quite expensive. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens as 3D printing evolves to be even faster, cheaper, and more available.
What’s your design process?
Right now, I actually prefer modeling with paper. It gives me a sense of space. I like working on a computer, too, but I prefer making 1-to-1 scale models. Paper is a great medium because it’s clean and cheap.
What are some products or designers you admire?
I love Toblerone chocolate. It’s fun to eat because it has that iconic triangular shape, which is unusual for a chocolate bar. Something about the shape makes it really interesting to interact with. It would be cool to design a chocolate bar like that, with a very distinct shape to it.