Panasonic calls on designers to light up developing world communities

According to Panasonic, around 1.3 billion people around the globe currently live without electricity, meaning that they often rely on hazardous kerosene lamps for light.

By Tom Banks January 17, 2014 4:01 pm February 6, 2015 3:24 pm

Panasonic promises to donate 100,000 of its Solar Lanterns to communities living without electricity by 2018 and it has asked paper artists to create lampshade designs in a bid to raise awareness of off-grid communities around the world.

The Cut Out The Darkness Project has been kicked off with work by 11 paper artists who hope to inspire the public to create their own paper- shade designs which they can upload to this website.

The 100 most popular designs will be selected via a public vote, laser cut, and mass produced along with those designed by the artists and delivered to schools and homes without electricity around the world.

Paper cut artists working on the project include Hina Aoyama, Anna Howarth, Bovey Lee and Elaine Penwell.

To kick things off Panasonic has already donated 8,000 of its lanterns to countries in the developing world, where last year 3,000 were sent to Myanmar, 5,000 to India and 2,000 to refugee camps in Africa.