At About Space, original design isn’t just what we make — it’s what we cultivate. Our ongoing partnership with Swinburne University is built on that belief: that the most exciting ideas come from emerging designers who are unafraid to experiment, challenge conventions, and see lighting from a fresh perspective. But great ideas don’t become great products on their own. Behind every student-designed piece that reaches our showrooms is a meticulous and collaborative journey led by our Product Designer, Steven Rollis.

As the lead mentor and technical guide for the Swinburne x About Space collaboration, Steven plays a pivotal role in transforming early student concepts into manufacturable, compliant, beautiful products worthy of our AS Originals collection. This year’s brief was intentionally open: design a floor lamp that incorporates our Yosh Glass system — a hallmark of About Space’s adaptability and sculptural lighting philosophy.

What followed was a months-long process of refinement, testing, prototyping, and material exploration, all anchored by Steven’s commitment to honour the students’ creative intent while aligning each design to About Space’s ethos of accessible, design-led lighting.

Translating Vision Into Viability

When the students first present their concepts, Steven begins by stripping the design back to its essence. What is the idea really trying to say? What’s the emotion? The story? The form language?

This early phase is less about feasibility and more about clarity.

From there, Steven maps each concept against the Yosh Glass system: its dimensions, weight, thermal properties, and lighting performance. Many students begin with a purely aesthetic approach to Yosh Glass, and Steven helps them understand its deeper design implications:

• Weight distribution and structural stability for a floor lamp
• Heat management around the LED light source
• Cable routing and electrical isolation
• Shade mounting tolerances and connection points
• Balance between glass size and floor lamp height

This is where the real teaching begins — demonstrating how creativity expands, not shrinks, when you understand the rules.

Designing With Yosh Glass: Technical Foundations

Incorporating Yosh Glass is a uniquely rewarding challenge. Its soft sculptural form and hand-finished profile give designers enormous creative freedom, yet it comes with strict technical boundaries that ensure safety, durability, and lighting performance.

Working closely with the students, Steven guides them through key considerations:

1. Thermal + Electrical Safety 

Students learn how LED modules behave over sustained operation, how heat affects materials over time, and what clearances are required to remain compliant with Australian electrical standards. Yosh Glass adds mass and insulation, meaning the internal LED design must be carefully controlled.

2. Weight, Balance + Structural Integrity

Floor lamps demand stability, and Yosh Glass is heavier than typical shades. Steven walks through base weights, centre-of-gravity calculations, and how stem thickness impacts rigidity. This ensures the final product not only looks refined but is safe and durable for everyday living.

3. Mounting Compatibility

Because Yosh Glass attaches through a specific engineered collar, the students must resolve their design around that connection point. Steven helps them develop custom housings that feel seamless while remaining fully compatible with our Yosh system.

Material Selection: The Art of Keeping Design Accessible

A crucial part of Steven’s role is ensuring the final lamp aligns with About Space’s price point: high-quality, design-led, but still accessible to a wide audience. This becomes an eye-opening experience for students, who often begin with expensive or impractical materials.

Steven guides them toward options that retain the integrity of their concept while improving manufacturability and affordability:

• Switching from solid brass to brushed brass-finished aluminium
• Choosing powder-coated steel over custom-machined parts
• Exploring modular construction to reduce tooling costs
• Using standardised internal components where possible
• Identifying opportunities for flat-pack shipping to reduce freight expenses

The goal is never to dilute the design. It’s to refine it — to make it smarter, leaner, and ready to exist in the real world. 

Honouring Student Creativity While Upholding About Space’s Design Ethos

One of the most meaningful elements of this collaboration is Steven’s commitment to preserving the authenticity of each student’s idea. Rather than reshaping designs to match About Space’s aesthetic, he works collaboratively, nudging the students toward decisions that align form with function, experience with possibility, and creativity with commercial reality.

Steven’s guidance includes:

• Strengthening form language to feel cohesive and intentional
• Refining proportions to match About Space’s signature sculptural balance
• Ensuring the lamp reads as contemporary yet timeless
• Avoiding unnecessary ornamentation
• Encouraging restraint, clarity, and purpose

The students quickly learn that About Space’s design ethos isn’t about minimalism for minimalism’s sake — it’s about celebrating light through form, and letting materials and glass take centre stage.

From Student Prototype to About Space Original

By the time a winning design passes through Steven’s hands, it has been tested, tweaked, costed, reconsidered, and reimagined — always in partnership with the designer. What emerges is a product that carries both voices: the bold imagination of the student and the refined craft of About Space.

This mentorship is more than a collaboration. It’s a continuation of our commitment to fostering the next generation of Australian lighting designers, and a testament to what’s possible when education and industry come together with a shared belief in innovation, curiosity, and craft.

And for customers, it means something even more exciting: new lighting that captures the energy of emerging talent, brought to life with the technical mastery and design integrity of About Space.