When it comes to the topic of man-made light, innovation is stumping. Even on crowdfunding platforms, rarely is something so utility driven as it is simple. Diah by MaNa is a Singaporean Kickstarter project which has accomplished just that, with an aesthetic spin on the concept of the portable light.

Diah’s a multi-purpose light that turns on in just a snap. It’s unconventional and boundary-breaking in many ways. For one, it’s paper-thin and light as a feather. So “portable” really has been propelled to maximum here. The modular, tasteful cut-out aesthetic of the Diah makes for stunning display that’s limited only by your creativity.

How It Works

There’s immense satisfaction that comes with being able to see the physics behind your gadgets. To turn Diah on, you just need to complete the circuit, which can be done by snapping one end of the Diah to another. It’s like the Lego of lights, so you can arrange your Diahs however you like, and its flexible design means you’re not confined to displaying the Diah only in circular shapes.

The structurally minimal product also allows you to place it to preference, with an almost effortless set-up and teardown process. When you’re done, you can just “un-snap” Diah and put her back in your bag – you can afford to because she takes up about as much space as a piece of paper.

The complete version of Diah is seamless as it is clean, and as lightweight as Diah may look, she sure is durable. Batteries can be changed comfortably, and you don’t have to worry too much about being delicate and gentle with her–girlfriend material.

“Doing More With Less”

Justsaying.ASIA put some marvellous Diah prototypes to test, the way we best know how: with freakin’ superheroes! Because there’s no superior way to test product usability than with your figurines. No additional lighting was used in our tests.

The omnidirectional design of the Diah allows for gorgeous, soft diffusion of the LED bulbs that the lamp uses. We also used Diah’s cut-outs to create texture where needed.

Diah’s perfect for shooting your miniatures, and definitely allows for easier light dispersion without the need for diffusion paper.

You can also use Diah to create magnificent structural props as accessories to your figurines.

For this setup, we used four Diahs, a cloth backdrop and red filter paper to give Kylo the perfect dark-side glow.

The slits in Diah allowed us to slot filter paper in with minimal external visibility and no clips. It’s not often you get to use your light sources as photo props. The Diah also doesn’t reach high temperatures, so you can safely adjust your effects to perfection.

If you’re all for complete effortlessness, Diah’s got you too. She looks good just lying down.

The Diah has got a relatively large lighting radius for its size, and as the creators themselves have put it, 5 Diahs are almost enough to light an entire room. Black mesh and four Diahs created a sultry setting to help make our Marilyn Monroe bobblehead ooze seduction.

It goes without saying that Diah’s an enamouring home accessory too.

You don’t need to work very hard to create the right moods with Diah. Different combinations and placement methods ultimately always create a product that’s very aesthetically pleasing, and suitable for home and professional situations; a game-changer in climates where the only truly portable lights we have are attached to our mobile phones. In comparison, Diah’s a massive step ahead, also using environmentally sustainable materials.

Back Diah on Kickstarter now to illuminate the lives of the people around you, and yourself. If you can come up with something that kicks ass more than our Diah creations did, send some pictures our way!