Takeshi Ohara of Fort Lauderdale won $1,500 in a contest to design a outdoor light fixture.
The light he designed is a bollard fixture — a knee-high pole with a light at the top. Ohara, a recent graduate of the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, won out of 140 entries from 130 schools. He said he spent about two weeks designing the picture.
“It was so surprising,” Ohara said of winning. “This was good, good news.”
Luraline Products, a lighting and fixture company in Opa-locka, sponsored the contest and South Florida architects and designers judged the entries.
“The ironic thing was, we had a local winner,” said Melissa DeVolentine, public relations for Luraline. “The contest was open nationwide to a wide range of schools from across the country and the jury had a difficult time. We just did not expect that the winner would come from South Florida.”
“One of the goals of the competition is to identify new and exciting design talent and I think we’ve accomplished that Mr. Ohara,” Luraline President Howard Levine said.
According to DeVolentine, the company is working on Ohara’s paper drawing to try and turn it into an actual product.
“This is the first thing I designed. If it goes into production with people actually using my design, it will be so nice,” Ohara said.
