Where is one supposed to spend lonely nights in northern Sweden
in the middle of a global pandemic? If you ask Isaac Stenegärd the
answer is easy. The UID worskhop. During ten intense dark winter
evenings, Isaac took full advantage of the UID facilities as he
booked solitary late-night sessions in the workshop. For hours on
end, he welded, bended, cut, coloured and molded his masterpiece,
the MKII Lightsaber.
Because of Covid-19, students weren't able to get the same
amount of time they would usually get in the workshop. The
restrictions also meant that they had to create something rather
small, preferably a handheld product. Luckily, a lightsaber is a
handheld weapon, at least if you're a Jedi.
Early sketches of the MKII
Lightsaber
Isaac, what's your relationship to 'Star Wars' and how
has it influenced your desire to become a designer?
"My relationship to Star Wars began very early and is still
going strong to this day. I think movies like Star Wars, Blade
Runner and Tron should be considered a mandatory part of a design
education. There is so much amazing design in those movies and I
will never get tired of studying and being inspired by those
movies. To someday land a job as a concept designer on that kind of
production would be a dream come true".
What was the biggest challenge during this
project?
It was actually the black piece of steel at the top, the
"emitter" as it's referred to in nerd terms. That part was manually
machined, as all pieces were, out of a solid steel bar. I had to
redo the entire piece two or three times, which took up almost half
of my assigned time in the workshop. Eventually, I had to do
somewhat of a redesign and welded and shaped a piece of steel to
fit on the tube, which is now actually a really cool feature of the
finished model in my opinion.
The model blueprint and the (almost) finished
article
Which was the most exciting part of the entire design
process?
I love to sketch and the sketching portion of the project was of
course enjoyable, but being able to work freely with all of the
resources the workshop offers us is just insane and it was so much
fun. The resources we have at UID in terms of model building are so
good, and nearly everything can be printed, machined, cnc:ed, etc.,
if you only have a little bit of creativity, which I think is
amazing.
Can we expect more 'Star Wars' inspired projects during
your time here?
I would love to do more 'Star Wars' or sci-fi inspired projects
in the future since it's a huge passion of mine, and we'll see what
the coming years have in store, hopefully at least one or two
spaceships will be hanging in the BFA studio when I
graduate.
