The dark winter months can get you down - but young designer Daniel Rybakken has come up with an intelligent solution with this series of projects that aim to generate their own sunbeams.

The underlying concept beind 'The Subconscious Effect of Daylight, and 'Surface Daylight' is actually a fairly simple concept, executed absolutely flawlessly.

It explores the ways that the positive effect of sunshine streaming into a room can be recreated artificially if no natural light is present. Sunshine in a room gives the feeling of extended space; remove natural daylight and perceived room size tends to decrease, often resulting in the knock-on effects of claustrophobia and even social isolation.

Instead of projecting light onto a surface, Rybakken built 'sunlight' into objects via LED's placed either inside or behind.

Still at prototype stage, this concept has already scooped a significant number of awards - including the Rolf Asard Foundation Award, a Red Dot Award, a Nordic Selected Award and a Design Report Award at the Salone del Mobile in Milan earlier this year.

We'd love to see these go into production...

Images © Daniel Rybakken