Panasonic “Cut Out the Darkness” Campaign

This is a really nice project by Panasonic which aims to provide light to 1.3 billion people who do not have electricity. It was started back in 2006 and they aim to have distributed 100,000 by the company’s 100th anniversary in 2017.

The “cut out the darkness” campaign offers the general public the chance to design and submit their own cut-out patterns for the Panasonic lanterns. By including the general public, the campaign promotes the understanding of life in areas without electricity. This is in the aim to have beneficial repercussions as the public become more charitable, environmentally and humanitarianly conscious.

I created my own design and submitted it to Panasonic in the aim for it to be voted in to the top 100 designs. My inspiration for my shade was football and more specifically David Beckham. This was because football brings happiness to people in all corners of the world.

Both children and adults can forget about the reality of the world whilst they have a kick about. The idea behind the shade is that they can continue this enjoyment and in turn create a relaxing environment for them to dream and aspire in. This is especially for the children who can aspire to role models like David Beckham and dream for a better life.

No matter what gender, age or language, people know David Beckham due to his unique global image. With him as my root of inspiration, I went with the idea of having past famous football players who played and wore the number 7 shirt for Manchester United to be shining from the lantern. These four players included; George Best, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo. I chose these four past players because they all represent different decades of football and Manchester United and so people of many generations can enjoy the atmosphere of my lantern shade.

On the 7^th February, Panasonic closed the campaign’s submission and released the report results on the 10^th. My design came thirteenth out of over five hundred and thus was one of the hundred to be sent off with the first release. My shade will be manufactured and donated to people living without electricity on Sumba Island in Indonesia. I can not wait to see a manufactured model of my design and hope the people it is donated to enjoys it and benefits from it.

I am very privileged to have my design voted in and appreciate those who voted for my creation. I am very thankful I got involved in the campaign to help raise awareness for those living without electricity across the globe and to give to those who are less fortunate than myself. I know I will do a lot more charitable campaigns from now on and encourage people to do the same.