Thesis: Designing for the Internet of Lighting

Self-initiated project, printed by Gildeprint

I have had a great time designing my PhD thesis. I was looking for a graphic style that illustrates the complexity of IoT systems without feeling cluttered (a core theme in my PhD project). A second important theme in my work was that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I therefore chose for an isometric design.

Isometric design

Quite simply, isometric design is a method of creating three-dimensional objects in two dimensions. It works because isometric icons have shape, simplicity, and depth.

The resulting illustrations are all elements from my PhD project. The offices I drew were models of the workplaces where I conducted my studies and featured the prototype user interfaces that I designed. I especially had fun with drawing some of my colleagues.

Fonts and paragraphs

My PhD project focussed on the application area of professional lighting. The lighting industry is a conservative area with a long history. This industry is on the brink of changing as IoT requires a lot of IT and service expertise, something new to the industry. I therefore wanted the font-family to have a classic, through modern appearance. Chaparral pro does the trick: The font feel modern and hints to the classical typewriter style with its round shapes and serifs.