Is it possible to create shape with light? Can a hexagonal grid be disguised by casting light upon its tiles? This questions where the main drivers behind the Bermuda Tile concept. Creating a tile that at a simple glance would show little relief yet once was casted on it, a strong relief would be revealed and a completely different pattern would arise.

To achieve this with 7mm profiling was more difficult  than expected, since shadows are not as long and defined as desired. Given the case, the design set of to be done with simple, long lines that would cast long defined shadows, complimented by smaller, less defined sub-shadows. The triangle was selected as the primitive for both hard and soft shadows. By drawing 3 concentric triangles (out of three opposite vertices) and then displacing them and tilting them with different rotation angles. Afterwards, the resulting surfaces between them and with the borders where further triangulated  to create the softer shadows. This smaller triangles got the needed tilt by the joining of its vertices with the main triangles and boundaries.

Finally, the tile was run through Rhino Cam using two 12mm pens carving out the main geometry and then doing a parallel finishing for the details to come out. The milling, mold, and casting procedures followed and finally polishing the pieces for further detail exposure.

Rhino Cam Simulation

3D Model