LAMP (Lighting Architecture Movement Project), a Vancouver-based lighting design competition and exhibition, is now accepting submissions for its fifth international contest.

Founded by local creatives Annika Hagen and Nicole Fox, the event tasks professional and amateur architects and designers with crafting an original lighting fixture centred on a certain theme. The subject for 2017 is balance.

This year's competition also marks LAMP’s transition from a yearly to a biannual fete. This decision was made in order to give entrants more time to develop and build their lighting objects.

“Over the four years that we have produced the exhibition, we have gathered feedback on how to improve upon the competition every year,” said Fox in a media release. “One thing we have realized is that allowing the designers more time could add great value to the work presented.”

Interested designers may submit entries in one of three categories (established, emerging, or student) until December 15. Judging takes place from January 2 to February 28, 2018. A public vote will also launch on January 31, 2018 to determine a People’s Choice recipient in each category.

Finalists, as determined by an esteemed panel of judges that, this year, includes industrial designers Tim Rundle, Bec Brittain, and Michael Anastassiades, will be announced in August 2018. The top 10 lighting fixtures from the established and emerging groups will be showcased at a special LAMP exhibition in Vancouver during fall of that year. Student finalists will have their designs highlighted in LAMP’s printed program.

The top winners in each category will be unveiled shortly before the opening of the exhibition. Cash prizes are available for first-place finishers, with the winner of the student group also earning a professional design internship with local lighting company ANDlight.

Previous LAMP finalists have included everything from ghostlike fixtures and glass-blown bulbs to kaleidoscopic lanterns and astronomical domes. Last year's competition saw local designers Loom Lighting and Sasamat Creative recognized among 130-plus entries from as far away as the Netherlands, Italy, and Hong Kong.

For more information about the LAMP lighting design competition, including full entry guidelines, click here.